Riddle's Riddles
by Aribh1306
Summary: Harry, Ron and Hermione travel back in time by accident. Now, they are stuck in the year of 1944 and have to find a way to go back to the future... But the past seems to be hiding some surprises for them. ON HIATUS.
1. Back to the past

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 1: Back to the past**

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_"Mysterious thing, time. Powerful... and when meddled with, dangerous."  
_- Albus Dumbledore

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione released Harry and Ron's arms and looked around, still a little bit dizzy from the Apparition, thankful that no one on the street had noticed how they had appeared out of nowhere.

"Where are we?" she heard the red-haired boy asking, but didn't bother to turn around to look at him to answer him.

"Tottenham Court Road. Walk, just walk. We have to find somewhere for you to change."

She dragged Ron and Harry along the street, ignoring the fact that they were starting to attract the attention of the various people who were crowding the street that night. "Hermione, we haven't got anything to change into!" She heard Ron say, but kept walking.

"Why didn't I make sure I had the Invisibility Cloak with me? All last year I kept it on me, and now…" Harry complained, following Hermione as she seemed to know where she was going.

"It's okay, I've got the Cloak, and I've got clothes both of you… Just try to act naturally until- this will do."

Hermione guided them into a dark alley where she hoped no one would be able to see them. The boys seemed to be torn apart between watching her to find out what she was up to or keeping an eye on the street to make sure no one would attack them.

"When you say you've got the Cloak and clothes…" the Boy-Who-Lived started to say when Hermione opened her small beaded bag and somehow managed to stuff her whole arm into it.

"Yes, they're here." She drew her arm back and handed them some clothes.

"How the bloody hell-?"

"Undetectable Extension Charm," said Hermione, pointing at the bag and smiling. "Tricky, but I think I did it well enough. Anyway, I was able to fit everything we need in here."

"When did you do all this?" Harry asked while he and Ron changed their clothes.

"I told you at the Burrow. I've had the essentials packed for days, you know, in case we needed to make a quick getaway. I packed your rucksack this morning, Harry, I just had a feeling…"

"You're brilliant…Really, you are," said Ron, smiling and handing his robes to her.

"Thanks." The witch smiled softly while she packed their clothes. "Harry, take it." She put her arm inside her bag again and took out the well known Invisibility Cloak that belonged to her friend.

"The others… Everyone at the wedding…" Harry said as he pulled the Invisibility Cloak over him.

"We can't worry about them now," Hermione said quietly. "It's you who they're after, Harry… We'll only put them in much more danger if we go back there."

"She's right," said Ron.

"Come on, I think that we should keep moving." the girl pointed to the street.

The three of them went back to the street and then to the main avenue, where a group of men on the opposite side were singing and laughing loudly, obviously drunk.

"Just a matter of interest, why Tottenham Court Road?"

"I have no idea, Ron. It just popped into my head, but I'm sure we're safer here in the Muggle world. It's not where they'll expect us to be."

"That's true," Ron looked around and pulled a face when he the group of laughing Muggles passed by them. "But don't you feel a little exposed?"

"Is there any other place where we could go?" Hermione asked, shrinking a little when a man started to whistle at her from across the street. "We can't book rooms at the Leaky Cauldron, can we? And Grimmauld Place is out of question because Snape can get in there… I think we can stay at my parents' house, but someone may check there too… Oh, I wish they would _shut up_!"

"Are you alright, dear?" One of the drunk men shouted, waving his hand at her. "Wanna drink something? Ditch the ginger and come here!"

"Let's sit somewhere," she said when Ron opened his mouth to shout back at the man and pointed at a small café. "Here, it'll do…"

The three of them entered the café and looked around. The place wasn't pretty; it was quite dirty and messy. Hermione went to a table and was disgusted to see that there was a layer of dirt and oil on the top of it, but she sat down anyway. She turned her gaze to the waitress, who seemed to be too busy with picking at her nails to pay attention to them.

"So, what do we do now?" Ron asked, sitting down next to Harry, who was still wearing the Cloak.

"I have no idea." The girl sighed. "Let's think: what do we have that can help us find the Horcruxes?"

"We have only the _great _information that Dumbledore gave to Harry," the Weasley muttered, rolling his eyes. "But that doesn't really help…"

The young girl opened her small bag and took out the Deluminator that their former headmaster had left for them, looking at it for a few seconds.

"Seriously, I can't see how this thing will help us," the red haired boy complained, poking the object before the witch could get it out of his reach. "What else did he left for us? A sword that we can't have, a children's book and an old snitch…"

"And a time-turner," the girl said quietly, and she raised her hand, showing them a golden chain entwined around her fingers, a tiny hour-glass hanging from it.

"What! ?" They heard Harry's voice echoing from the empty place next to Ron, who poked his friend's side in an attempt to remind him to stay quiet.

"Scrimgeour called me after you two left. He asked me a lot of questions and then gave it to me." She moved her hand, making the time-turner sway in the chain. "He wouldn't stop telling me how dangerous it would be if I used it for anything… As if I didn't know the consequences! But I don't know why Dumbledore…"

"Why Dumbledore left it? It's obvious, Mione! He wanted us to use the time-turner to stop Snape from killing him!" Ron grinned and reached for the small object, which was quickly snatched away from his hands by the witch.

"No! Dumbledore knew how dangerous time-travel can be!"

"Then of course, he left this as a souvenir!"

"Ron, time-travel is a dangerous thing! Ask Harry…"

"Harry wants to save Dumbledore too!"

"_Ronald!"_

"Shut up, both of you!" They heard Harry whisper from under the Cloak and stopped arguing. "Hermione, what else did Scrimgeour say about the time-turner?"

"Nothing more." She rose the hour-glass to her eye's level. "Merlin! Look!"

She showed them the tiny time-turner. There was something marked on its metallic structure… Letters. Tiny letters.

"_Back to the memories?"_ Harry whispered. "What does it mean?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Ron took the object from the girl's hand and put the golden chain around their necks, ignoring the annoyed shriek Hermione let out when he did it. "We have to stop Snape!"

"Ron, give it back to me!"

"You two have to stop!" The boy who was covered by the Cloak demanded. "First of all, we have to think about Voldemort's Horcruxes…"

The two of them agreed. Ron still had the time-turner in his hands and Hermione looked around, seeing if anyone had noticed their fight. Everything was normal… The waitress was chewing on something, still looking bored, and two work men were entering the café in silence, heading for another counter.

"Alright," the Weasley mumbled. "But it would be a good idea to use the time turner to…"

But before he could finish his sentence, one of the men who had come into the café took out a wand from his pocket. Hermione shrieked and whipped her own wand out from her pocket, but, before she could do anything, the man had already pointed his wand at them and shouted a spell that hit their table and sent them flying through the window.

Then everything happened too quickly… In one moment there were Death Eaters screaming, spells cutting the air, a rain of broken glass and then…

"Where are we?" Hermione got up from the floor and looked around.

It looked like the same street, but this one was slightly different. Several houses were destroyed and everything seemed to be dirty. The buildings' designs looked odd and, when she tried to find someone on the street, Hermione noticed they were the only ones standing there. The girl raised her head and looked up at the dark and cloudy sky, trying to understand what had happened to them.

"Hermione?" Harry, who was still on the floor, half covered by the cloak, called her. "Can you hear that?" The boy took off the Cloak and got up, looking up to the sky, paying attention to a strange mechanical noise that seemed to be coming from there.

"What is that?" Ron asked. "That noise…?"

Before any of them could answer, a loud explosion shook the ground, making them fall again. The red haired boy was now scared, looking wildly around the street and trying to find out what was happening. Harry seemed to have understood what had happened, as he found the scenery oddly similar to some war movies that Uncle Vernon and Dudley used to watch.

"_What the bloody hell! ?"_

"Come on! Quick!" Hermione grabbed the boys' hands tightly and they felt the weird feeling of apparition, but then they noticed that they hadn't moved at all.

"What! Hermione…"

"I tried to Apparate back to Tottenham Court Road," she muttered, looking panicked. "But… Apparently, this _is _Tottenham Court Road!"

"And now?" Harry asked.

"And now we run!"

Grabbing both of them by their hands, Hermione started running along the street, trying to run away from the explosions. Sometimes she tripped over her feet, almost falling on the ground with Harry and Ron, but the boys managed to hold her before that happened. The red haired boy was running like a madman. He had never seen anything like this in his life!

When the noise seemed to be fading away, the three teenagers stopped running. The dark haired boy leaned against a lamppost and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He saw that now there were other people on the street, running to find a safe place to hide. Looking at his friends, Harry saw that both of them were, just like him, trying to catch their breath while looking around.

Before any of them could do anything, a young woman ran onto a corner near them and stared at them for a moment, before frantically gesturing for them to follow her. She looked very frightened, but seemed to know where to go, so the teenagers didn't waste time to follow her along the streets. After running for some time, they noticed that they had stopped in front of an old building that the young woman was pointing to frantically.

"You can stay in here… We have a basement where the children stay during the attacks," she panted, looking at the sky and listening to the mechanic noise that was getting closer. "Come on!"

Harry, Ron and Hermione followed her as she walked around the building to a backyard. The woman pointed to a small door that was almost entirely covered by bushes in the back of the garden.

"What are you three waiting for!" she screamed, seeming to be on the edge of a panic attack as she watched the three teenagers stand in front of the door not do anything, and walked past them, opening it and making them enter the basement.

The small shelter was dark and dirty. Lots of boys and girls were crumpled inside, some of them were looking up at the ceiling, hoping that the bombing would stop soon. Others were crying silently, scared of the noises coming from outside, and a few of them were simply sitting down, looking at nothing in particular, waiting for everything to settle down.

"Who are they?" A woman's voice asked.

"I found them on the streets, Mrs. Cole… They looked so scared and lost."

The three of them turned to an elderly woman sitting on a stool in the middle of the crowd.

"Sit down, please," Mrs. Cole spoke. "It'll take some time until we can go out…"

"Excuse me," Hermione called her. "Could you… Could you tell us what place is this?"

The woman smiled sadly before answering her question.

"Wool's Orphanage, my dear."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** So... this is a translation of my fanfiction _Riddle's Riddles_ that was originally written in portuguese. I started writing this fanfiction in October of 2009 I think... and I finished it in February of 2010, so... Yes, the fanfiction is already finished, I just need to translate it... But when I'm translating I always change somethings XD. Ahm, my English is not the best and one of the reasons why I'm translating Riddle's is that I want to practice my English (:

So, about this chapter... The first part of the chapter is actually a scene from Deathly Hallows, I don't know if I translated it as it is on the book or if it's different. Also, in this chapter, there is an historical incoherence ): The german's bomb attacks on England stopped in 1941 I think... and this chapter takes place in 1944, so... I'm sorry for the mistake.

So, that's it... Hope you enjoyed it.

Tell me what you think about it (:

**EDIT:** now with the quotation marks instead of the traces on dialogues :D and beta read. Thanks, **Shadow6116**, for beta reading the first chapters for me.

.

**Ari.**


	2. Wool's Orphanage

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 2: Wool's Orphanage**

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_"Time is priceless, but it's Free. You can't own it, you can use it. You can spend it. But you can't keep it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back." _  
— Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife)

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

An hour had passed since they had entered the basement. Hermione looked at her friends and noticed that Harry was looking around as if he was trying to find someone, his green eyes scanning the dark place carefully. He didn't even seem to be scared of the fact that they were caught in the middle of a bombing. Ron, on the other hand, kept glancing up at the ceiling, looking frightened.

"I think we can go out now," the woman who had helped them told Mrs. Cole when all the explosions had stopped for several minutes.

"Yes, yes," the elderly woman murmured. "I think it's safe now."

When the younger woman opened the door, everyone ran to it, trying to get out of the basement as quickly as possible. Ron was one of those who seemed desperate to step out, and the red haired boy dragged his friends along with him.

"Calm down!" the girl said, running a hand through her messy hair and then trying to straightening the fabric of her dress. "And you, Harry… Stop looking around like that! Try to look normal, please."

"Mione…" Harry started to speak, looking worried, but he stopped when he saw Mrs. Cole getting closer to them.

"Excuse me," the woman spoke in a calm voice and smiled softly. "Could you three come with me?"

They nodded and followed her, entering the orphanage and going to a well organized office on the first floor. Mrs. Cole sat down on the comfortable chair behind her desk and scanned them carefully for a while. Now that they were in a well lit place, they could see that Mrs. Cole was an elderly woman with wrinkles all over her face. Her dark eyes were kind and it was obvious that she was a calm person who could stand babies crying and children yelling during the whole day... The perfect person to be the matron of an orphanage.

"Martha told me she found you on the streets," she began. "She told me that you three looked scared and lost. Tell me, where are your parents?"

Harry and Ron looked at each other worriedly. What would they say to the old matron? Hermione waited for one of them to speak, but when no words came from her friends, she took a step forward and started speaking.

"We were at a party and a bomb fell near our house." She started to invent a tragic story that would fit into their situation, doing her best to make it look realistic. "I don't know how we got out without getting killed… But everyone else… They're all dead…"

"Oh dear!" The woman's eyes were full of pity. "Don't you have any other relatives?"

"We were a small family. Everyone was at the party," the witch whispered, passing her hand in front of her eyes as if wiping them. "I really don't know how we're alive."

"Children…" Mrs. Cole got up and walked to them, putting a hand on Hermione's shoulder, trying to comfort her. The girl hid her face behind her hands for a moment, before looking up at the woman. "I think that you all can stay here… This is an orphanage after all, and we want to help everyone who needs help."

"You don't know how great it would be for us, Mrs. Cole." The witch smiled sadly. "We are so grateful…"

"Alright, my dears. I'll ask Martha to show you your rooms." She smiled, walking to the door. "You can get cleaned up and sleep for a while. But, before you go, may I know your names, please?"

"Er… This is Harry Pevensie," she pointed to Harry and then to Ron. "And this is Ronald Purkiss… And I am Hermione Granger."

"Good... Wait a minute, I'll call Martha."

With a small smile, the old woman left the office.

It didn't take too much time until the assistant appeared on the door. The young woman's blonde hair was messy and her dark blue eyes were wide, as if she was afraid that another attack would happen at any minute, but she was kind to them as she led them across the orphanage to their rooms, explaining the rules of the place.

"You two boys, can stay in this room." She pointed to a small bedroom with two beds and two wardrobes. "And you, dear, can stay in the room next door, if you don't mind not having a roommate."

"It's alright."

Martha smiled to them before walking away and leaving them alone. The red haired boy looked around, making sure that there was no one who could eavesdrop on them.

"What was that weird story that you made up?" Ron asked.

"I had to say something! You and Harry just stayed quiet…" the girl answered, sighing and walking to her room. "I think it's better for us to go to sleep… We've been through a lot of things today, we need to rest."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The orphanage dining room was full of children talking about the previous bomb attack. Harry and Ron were sitting at a corner, eating their breakfast and receiving several curious glances from the others. The boys saw Hermione enter the place and go to them.

"Good morning." The girl smiled, sitting down next to them, and she started to eat her breakfast, ignoring the looks and whispers from the other kids around them.

"Morning, Mione," muttered the red haired boy. "We need to know what happened to us…"

"Just finish eating and then I'll talk about that."

The three of them finished their breakfast quickly and then followed Hermione to the orphanage's backyard, the same place where the bomb shelter was located. The witch looked around and yanked a golden necklace from inside her sweater, showing them the time-turner.

"It broke when we were attacked," she explained, showing them how the tiny hour-glass had its metallic structure contorted in an odd angle, and the glass was broken. "And, as we were wearing it around our necks… Well, we traveled through time."

"That was what I thought," said Harry. "But… What year are we in?"

"1944."

"1944! ? Wow… And what _was_ that yesterday?" Ron asked, pointing to the basement door and then to the sky.

"It was a war, Ron." It was the Harry who answered. "Bombs… But there are more important things that we have to talk about…"

"He is right," Hermione hid the time-turner inside her sweater again and run a hand through her bushy hair. "We have to find a way to go back to the future and…"

"I was talking about another important thing, actually."

"Harry, what are you talking about?" Ron asked, looking at his friend as if he was a madman. "We can't stay in this hell full of bombs for long! We have to go back home…!"

"You two don't understand."

"No, we don't! What are you talking about? We have to go back to the future and destroy Voldemort's Horcruxes!" The girl crossed her arms in front of her chest and gave her friend a look of disbelief.

"Last year, when Dumbledore told me about Voldemort's past, he showed me the place where Tom Riddle grew up…"

"We know that, Harry! You already told us about how Voldemort grew up in a Muggle orph-…" She suddenly stopped speaking and turned around to look at the old building behind her. "A Muggle orphanage in the middle of London."

"But it could've been any orphanage in London!" whispered Ron.

"I remember what the place looked like! And I remember the matron's name too: Mrs. Cole!"

"Harry, what are you thinking about…?" Ron asked.

"I want to stop Voldemort! I want to stop him before he becomes the darkest wizard of all time!" The Boy-Who-Lived smiled, proud of his idea. "If we stop Voldemort here, when he's still young and without his Death Eaters, we won't have to go after Horcruxes in the future! We won't even have a war in the future!"

"Harry, you can't! Terrible things…"

"Happened to wizards who played with time. I know, Hermione." The boy stared at the witch. "But can't you see what we can do? My parents wouldn't be dead! Sirius, Moody, Cedric, Dumbledore… All those people would be _alive!"_

"And what are you gonna do? Hmm? Step into his room and shoot him with a Avada Kedavra so the Ministry can come and arrest you?"

"Anything! I'll do anything to stop Riddle!"

"I agree with her mate… This is madness…"

"Madness? Ron! Your family would be safe if there wasn't Lord Voldemort! If we don't do anything, the Weasleys will be tracked as blood-traitors forever…"

"And if we _do _something we'll mess up with the whole timeline!" Hermione interrupted him. "Listen to yourself, Harry! To completely change history! W could mess up important things… We could even prevent ourselves from being born!"

The witch stopped talking when she heard the backdoor of the building being opened. She saw how the expression on Harry's face changed. His face was now tense and his green eyes had a strange glint of rage in them. Turning around to see who had entered the backyard, she saw a young man with dark hair and icy blue eyes standing a few meters from them. He should have the same age as them and was staring at the trio with a serious expression on his face. He was taller than her, but still seemed to be short for his age, and his paleness combined with the fact that he was rather thin made him look slightly sick.

"Harry?" Ron said quietly, trying to catch his friend's attention.

The Boy-Who-Lived turned to him and Hermione before whispering:

_"Voldemort."_

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Second chapter is weird and short D: So... The golden trio is now in Riddle's orphanage :D And Tom finally showed up the the story.

So... How I choose Martha's name was funny... I asked a friend of mine to help me to choose a nome for her. I said that I was thinking about "Martha" and she liked it, after that, we were searching for somethings and we discovered that Martha is the name of little Tom's [Hero Fienne-Tiffin] mother :D and also, in the book there is a character called "Martha" that works in Mrs. Cole's orphanage.

About Harry and Ron's fake names... Pevensie, guess what, is from Chronicles of Narnia, and Purkiss is from another fanfiction that I'm writing [about the Marauders], it's Alice Longbotton's name before she married Frank Longbotton. And, I didn't want to change Hermione's name... I mean, she is a muggle-born, no one at Hogwarts would know her because of her name... [ok, I didn't want to change her name, that's it XD].

Beta read by **Shadow6116**.

Thanks **sweet-tang-honney** and **ClaireReno** for the reviews (:

Hope you enjoyed it.

Tell me what you think about it (:

.

**Ari.**


	3. It's a pleasure to meet you

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 3: It's a pleasure to meet you**

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_" 'Did you know, Sir? Then?'_

_'Did I know I just met the most dangerous_  
_dark wizard of all times? No.' "_

- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Ron and Hermione kept staring at the young man a few meters away from them. For them, it was unbelievable that this boy would one day become the Dark Lord that was turning their world into a horrible place... After all, he looked like a normal teenager. A very serious teenager, but still a normal one.

_"Him?"_ the red haired wizard asked, raising an eyebrow. "Are you telling me _he_ is You-Know-Who?"

Harry nodded, still staring at the future dark wizard, who kept staring back at them.

"Well, he doesn't look that scary…"

"I'm sure he already is a little bit like Voldemort , Ron," the girl whispered.

"Hermione, he is Voldemort!" the two boys almost yelled.

"No, Harry… He is Tom Riddle, I think… I mean, look at him! He's not…"

"You don't get it, Mione! He is, and will always be, Lord Voldemort. He may not be that… _thing _that he is in the future, but he is surely Voldemort inside."

"My God, Harry! Calm down…I simply said I think that he _may_ not be as bad as he is in the future!" Hermione rolled her eyes, trying to ignore her friend's bad mood; after all, Harry's annoying mood when it came to talk about Voldemort was something she was already used to.

"Hey, it doesn't really matter how bad he is right now," Ron muttered nervously and pointed at the boy behind them. "What _really_ does matter now is that he's coming toward us."

They turned around and saw Tom Riddle getting closer to them. A tiny fake smile was playing on his lips as he approached them, and he started to talk with a calm and deep voice that seemed to be too controlled to belong to a teenager.

"Hello, you must be the new kids that Martha found yesterday." The boy analyzed each of them with a well-disguised look of disdain in his deep blue eyes. "I thought you three would be inside, trying to be friends with the others."

"What makes you think that we would do that?" Harry snarled at him.

"Everyone who gets here does that." The other wizard shrugged. "Try to attract friends… to look interesting…"

"I think it doesn't really apply to you, Riddle," Ron whispered, seeing how the boy didn't seem to be worried about being social with the other inhabitants of the orphanage.

Tom stared at him coldly, his lips now contorted with disgust, before speaking again.

"It's not as if I wanted to be with those…_Those children,"_ he spat the words at Ron's face. "And I don't remember telling you my name."

"You didn't," Hermione interrupted them, trying to get rid of the tense atmosphere that was now around them and keeping her friends from doing anything that could upset Riddle even more. "Someone else told us, I don't remember who…"

The young wizard stared at her, trying to discover if she was lying to him. She felt as if his cold blue eyes were trying to convince her to talk, dragging her in so he could discover what was going on inside her mind.

"If that is it… My name is Tom Riddle, and you are…?"

"Harry Pevensie and Ronald Purkiss," she pointed to her friends. "And I am Hermione Granger."

"It's a _pleasure _to meet you, but now, if you don't mind, I have to go. So, if you'll excuse me..." Riddle looked at them one last time before turning around and going to the orphanage.

Harry, Ron and Hermione watched the boy as he made his way into the building. The red haired young man had wide eyes as if he had just seen a ghost but, at the same time, a soft and playful grin was on his lips; Hermione looked curious and scared at the same time… But Harry seemed to be attempting to keep himself from attacking Riddle at anytime.

"Was it just me or his_"It was a pleasure to meet you" _sounded really fafe?" Ron asked, imitating Tom's voice.

"No, Ron, you're right." The witch shook her head and sighed. "Did you see how he talked about the other children? As if they were disgusting creatures!"

"They're only disgusting Muggles to him, Mione," Harry said.

"This is ridiculous!" she complained. "Horrible! But, let's forget Riddle and think about us. We need to find a way to get the time-turner fixed and…"

"Hermione! Can't you see that we have to stop Voldemort first?"

"And can't _you_ see that this idea of yours is too dangerous?"

"Hey, can't we just…" Ron started to speak, raising his hand as if asking permission to express his opinion. "Can't we just ask for help? I don't know… from the Ministry or Dumbledore."

"I don't think it's a good idea," the girl answered. "Dumbledore is okay… But I don't trust the Ministry."

"Neither do I," said Harry. "Do you think anyone noticed that we traveled back in time?"

"Maybe Dumbledore. Who knows?" the witch said. "I'm not sure myself."

"We could send an owl…"

"No, Ron. Let's just wait… If nothing happens, we'll send an owl to Professor Dumbledore, but for now, we'll wait for a letter from Hogwarts or anyone else, alright?"

The two boys looked at each other before answer her.

"You said it, Mione."

"Okay… Let's get inside."

"Hermione! What about Riddle?" Harry whispered, following the witch to the door.

"Harry, you know my opinion on this." She sighed and looked into the boy's emerald green eyes. "If I were you I would stay quiet and try to find a way back home."

"Yeah, mate, she's right," said Ron, pointing at the girl. "But I still can't believe that bloke is You-Know-Who! I mean, you saw him, I bet Harry's cousin could take him down without much effort."

"Physical force isn't everything, Ron, especially when we're talking about wizards." Hermione smiled softly.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, Mione." The Weasley sighed, before laughing and poking Harry's arm. "But we still could at least break his nose, mate! I'm sure he wouldn't put up a great fight…"

"Ronald!"

"For Merlin's sake, Mione, I was only joking!" Ron rolled his eyes before looking at the dark haired boy and grinning. "But, come on, Hermione, you must admit it would be at least interesting to see Harry and I taking the Dark Lord down with a punch on the nose."

The witch simply shook her head, allowing a small laugh to escape from her lips, before going into the building, followed by her friends.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** A short chapter D: Sorry... Well, Tom finally did something in this fanfiction :D I know that he didn't do anything really important in this chapter but what did you think about him? I mean... Did you like how he appeared in this chapter? (:

Thanks **sweet-tang-honney,** **ClaireReno, ccha, ellyriddlecooper, Gonewiththerain09 **and** LK-HoGwArTs-hEaDgIrL** for the reviews on the last chapter (:

Beta read by **Shadow6116**.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	4. So you're different

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 4: So you're... different**

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_"There have been incidents with the other children. Nasty things."_

- Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The hot days of the summer went by quickly, leaving everyone at the orphanage unhappy with the fact that the vacation was coming to an end. Harry, Ron and Hermione were even more worried by the fact that they haven't received any message from the Wizarding world yet and the only person that seemed to be happy with the approaching of the new school year was Tom Riddle.

"I don't know how he can be so happy," a blond haired girl muttered and looked around the small library of the orphanage.

"You know that he's mad, Amelia." the boy that was sitting next to her answered, looking at the teenager who was sitting at the other corner of the room and happened to be the main subject of their conversation. "He's always been like that."

"Since when did you know him?"

"Since he was eleven… when he was admitted into that 'special' school of his. If you want to know my opinion, it's a school for mad people."

"Erik! Don't talk like that!" the girl whispered, looking around nervously. "Or at least don't say it so loudly. He might hear you!"

"I'm just saying what I think." He shrugged.

They stopped talking and looked at the library's door where the new girl was standing. The three new kids had attracted attention when they arrived at the orphanage… Maybe it was because they were always together or the strange way they behaved. The girl, for instance, rarely talked to anybody that wasn't one of her friends, and was always inside her room or in the library when she wasn't in the company of the two boys.

"What do you think about her?" Amelia asked, pointing to the girl. "What's her name again? It's really odd…"

"Her name is Hermione and I think she's weird too." Erik laughed. "She and her friends could get together with Riddle and share their weirdness." He stopped talking for a while before whispering to her. "Hey, Amelia, I've been thinking about this for a while now… Would you like to get a look at Riddle's room? So that we'll know what he does in there? I mean, he spends most of the time in his room."

"No! That's crazy, Erik!" Amelia shrieked. "Did you forget what you told me about what happened to Amy Benson and Dennis Bishop? !"

"You don't understand… He changed after he went to that weird school," the boy explained, looking at Tom, who was sitting a few tables away from them. "The weird things stopped happening so often. It looks as if he's been controlling himself…."

"You talk like it's him who controls these things that happen." Amelia whispered as she started to wrap a strand of her blond hair around her finger. "And, Erik, I don't think invading Riddle's room a good idea… Actually, no, I'm sure it isn't a good idea."

"Mia! I wouldn't drag you into something dangerous, you know that." Erik smiled. "You don't have to worry. He won't even know we were in there… We're just going to find out what he even does in there."

"Alright… What do you have in mind?"

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione entered the library and let her gaze fall upon Tom Riddle, who was sitting in a solitary corner of the room with a book in his hands and his attention glued to his reading. The witch looked around, noticing the two teenagers that were now staring at her and Tom, and then approached a bookshelf, looking at the books on it and trying them.

"What do you think about her? What's her name again? It's really odd…"

"Her name is Hermione and I think she's weird too."

The girl sighed and walked away from the couple who was talking about her, going to another bookshelf. This one that was closer to Riddle but at least it was away from the other teenagers. Hermione stared at the books but lost interest in them after a few minutes, when she noticed that no book in there would be interesting enough to make her stop worrying about the fact that she and her friends were still isolated from the Wizarding world in the middle of the 1940s. She turned around and watched the young man that was near her.

For her, it was impossible to imagine that this boy would one day become the most feared wizard of history. He looked like a normal boy… Okay, maybe not so normal. Tom seemed to be too quiet and too serious for a seventeen years old teenager but still… He only looked like a grumpy and solitary teenager, not a soon-to-be murderer.

"Could you stop staring at me, please?" Riddle's deep voice took her off of her thoughts.

The wizard had his eyes fixed on her, waiting for an answer.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Hermione said and felt herself blushing. "I didn't mean to disturb you…"

"Are you searching for any particular book?"

"Actually, no. I'm just taking a look at the shelves," she said, looking at the book that he was holding. "_The Picture of Dorian Gray_… Is it good?"

"It's… interesting."

"I've never read it."

Riddle smiled softly to her before going back to his book, ignoring her completely. Hermione watched him for a moment and then turned around to look at the bookshelf again. But before she could find a book, Martha, Mrs. Cole's assistant, came into the library.

"Ms. Granger? Mrs. Cole wants you in her office."

The witch nodded and followed the young woman, not noticing how Riddle's attention was caught by what the orphanage worker had said. When she arrived at the matron's office, Hermione saw that Harry and Ron were there too, along with Mrs. Cole and an unknown man with auburn hair and beard who was wearing some colorful clothes.

"I suppose you are Ms. Granger." The man smiled kindly at her. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I am Albus Dumbledore. Mrs. Cole, could we talk privately, please?"

The matron nodded and left the room. During that time, the girl couldn't stop staring at the professor. It was strange to look at him now… He was younger and, of course, alive! She had never thought she would be so grateful to see Dumbledore's bright blue eyes and gentle smile once again.

"Very well. I believe that you three are wizards, am I right?" The trio nodded in approval. "So, you must know about Hogwarts?"

"Yes, sir," Harry answered.

"Good… Because you had been admitted in the school." The teacher smiled. "I want to explain how everything works but first I want to know something… Where are you from?"

"We… lived in France, professor," said Hermione, making up a new story for them. "But we never went to Beauxbatons. We were homeschooled."

"And how did you end up here in England?"

"Grindelwald," she said, noticing how Dumbledore's expression turned serious as he heard the dark wizard's name. "His followers attacked our families. You see, I'm Muggleborn and I had always lived near Harry and Ron, so we have always been friends… When I discovered I was a witch, their parents started teaching me along with them." The girl cursed herself for inventing such a horrible story, but continued nonetheless. "One day, some of Grindelwald's followers appeared at our houses… They weren't happy with the fact that Harry and Ron's parents liked Muggles and…"

"It's alright, Ms. Granger," Dumbledore interrupted her. "It's a common story nowadays, unfortunately… I suppose that after that you decided to come to England, but why?"

"Our families are English, actually. And we've heard that Grindelwald is not so strong here…"

The wizard watched them for a while, before sighing and digging his hand inside his coat pocket.

"This is your acceptance letter," he said as he handed them three Hogwarts letters. "The list of everything you'll needis in the letter, and you'll be able to find everything in Diagon Alley here in London," the professor said. "I don't think you know where it is…"

"We know… _Ouch!_" Ron started to talk, but stopped after having his foot stepped by Hermione. "We don't know, sir."

"Don't worry about that. Luckily, we have another boy in this orphanage who is a wizard and studies at Hogwarts," Dumbledore explained. "Mr. Riddle… I believe you already know him. I asked him to take you to the Diagon Alley." The man stopped talking and looked at the strange pocket watch in his hands. "Merlin, I have to go! As I said, everything you need to know is in the letter, but you can ask Mr. Riddle about anything you want to know."

The wizard smiled before exiting the room. The trio heard him speaking with Mrs. Cole before Martha appeared at the door.

"He's odd, isn't he?" The woman asked and laughed quietly. "But he seems to be really smart… The last time I saw him it was when Tom was eleven years old."

"Yes, he can be a little bit…" Harry stopped, thinking about a word that could describe Dumbledore. "Different."

Martha smiled and left them alone. After that, the three of them opened their letters and started reading it. They were the practically identical to the ones from the future. The only differences were that Dumbledore's name occupied the space for the deputy headmaster's name while Armando Dippet's was in the headmaster's place.

"Do we really need to go to the Diagon Alley with Riddle?" Ron asked, grimacing. "I don't wanna go with him, and I bet he doesn't want to go with us too."

"But it would be strange if we went alone," Hermione explained, folding her letter and putting it in her skirt's pocket. "We aren't supposed to know anything about London…" She suddenly stopped talking when Tom Riddle appeared at the door with an obviously irritated expression on his face.

"So you too are…" he started to speak but stopped when a group of kids passed running behind him. "_Different."_ The trio nodded. "Well, I'm going to Diagon Alley today… If you want me to show you where it is, it's better to get ready to leave in… fifteen minutes."

And saying that the young man walked away, leaving the three teenagers alone.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** So... in this chapter I wanted to show how I imagine that the other kids at the orphanage saw Tom [a.k.a the creepy boy that has no friends]. Have you guys ever read The Portrait of Dorian Gray? I finished it a few months ago... and I don't know why this book makes me remember of Tom.

Oh, also... I've done a drawing of a scene of this chapter, but it's pretty weird... http : / fc06 . deviantart . net / fs50 / f / 2009 / 279 / e / 6 / Scene_01_by_Arileli . jpg [ok, this drawing is REALLY weird! I have to draw it again some day ): ]

Thanks everyone for the reviews on the last chapter :D You don't know how happy I am when I enter in the morning and see all the reviews that you left *_*

Beta read by **Shadow6116**.

.

.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	5. Not so scary now, right Riddle?

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 5: Not so scary now, right Riddle?**

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_"The best way to annoy your enemy is by being nice to him"_

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Diagon Alley was full of young witches and wizards who were buying their school materials for the new school year at Hogwarts. The place seemed to be the same as the one from the future, the only difference being the way some people were dressed. Harry, Ron and Hermione had already gone away from Riddle, who had obviously not been interested in showing them the place. Now that they were alone, the trio felt more relaxed than ever since their accident with the time-turner and enjoyed the day.

"Everything is pretty much the same," said the red haired boy, looking at the shops around them and stepping aside to let a plump witch whose arms were filled with potions bottles pass. "If I didn't know that we traveled through time, I would think that we were back in 1997."

"You can notice the difference, Ron," Hermione said as she watched some witches that were chatting near them. "You just need to pay attention to their clothes, to their behavior and…

"Sorry, Mione, but for me all these things seem to be the same from the future." Ron laughed and the witch smiled at him, shaking her head.

"But you could notice that we are in another year without paying too much attention on the people. I mean… Look around yourself! There aren't any Ministry's posters about the Death Eaters or You-Know-Who…"

"Of course there isn't anything about them," Harry muttered. "Everyone thinks that You-Know-Who is only a brilliant seventeen years old teenager and not a murderer… Argh! Speak of the Devil…"

The three of them turned around to see Tom Riddle approaching them with the serious expression that he always seemed to have on his face. Harry whispered something that Hermione couldn't understand before Riddle stopped in front of them.

"I see that you already bought everything you needed," the young man said, analyzing them with his blue eyes. "Can we go back to the orphanage now?"

Hermione nodded and the trio followed Riddle to outside the Alley. It was only when they were already exiting the Leaky Cauldron that Tom finally looked back to see if the three teenagers were behind him.

"So… You came from France, running away from Grindelwald," he said in a calm voice. "Did you study in Beauxbatons?"

"No," Ron answered. "We were homeschooled."

"I see… But who taught you, Granger?" Tom said with a hint of scorn in his voice. "With your surname, I believe that you are a Muggle-born."

"Harry and Ron's parents taught me," the girl answered, glaring dangerously at the other.

"So that's why Grindelwald attacked your families…"

"What?" Harry asked as he stopped walking and stared at the other wizard.

"She is a Muggle-born and your families were obviously Muggle lovers," Riddle explained and now he wasn't making too much effort to hide the disgust he was feeling as he spoke. "And, as you must know, Grindelwald wants to purify the magical word."

"That's a stupid idea," Hermione muttered. "_Purify the magical world…"_

"If it is like that," Harry spoke with a mocking tone and a tiny smirk on his lips. "You should be worried, shouldn't you?"

"What are you talking about?" Riddle's face lost its smug expression when he heard what the other boy had said and his eyes narrowed.

"With _your_ surname," the Boy-Who-Lived said, and his smirk became a wide sarcastic grin. "You must be a Muggleborn or a half-blood…"

Before Harry could say anything, Tom pushed him against the nearest wall and held him there. His blue eyes were locked onto Harry's green ones and his face was contorted in rage, while the other boy seemed to be torn apart between laughing and staying serious.

"Don't you _dare_ to open your mouth to speak about me, Pevensie!" Riddle hissed, pressing the other harder against the brick wall. "One more word about me and I swear that you'll regret even being _born_!"

"Hey, mate!" Ron interrupted him and, without much effort, grabbed Tom's shoulders and dragged him away from his friend. "Leave him alone, alright?"

Riddle didn't answer. The only thing he did was stare at Ron for a few seconds before turning around and walking away quickly. Harry straightened himself and laughed at the young man that was now a few meters away from them.

"Harry!" Hermione slapped her friend's arm. "What do you think you are doing! Provoking Riddle won't lead us to anything at all!"

"Hermione, this guy killed my parents!"

"You must understand that this is_Tom Riddle_! He is not Lord Voldemort yet," the girl tried to explain even though she knew her friend wouldn't understand – or wouldn't believe in – anything she said. "It won't help if you provoke him! Try to remember that he isn't the man who killed your parents yet."

"How will I think like that, Mione! You saw the way he is! He is Voldemort disguised as an innocent boy!" the dark haired wizard yelled, attracting the attention of other the people on the street. "As I said before, Tom Riddle is and will always be Lord Voldemort!"

"Harry, please, be quiet! If you haven't noticed yet, we aren't alone!" She pointed at the Muggles that were around them.

"They're Muggles, Mione!"

"They may be wizards!" she whispered. "They may be future Death Eaters! We can't risk talking about those things in the middle of the street…"

"Mione…!" Harry started speaking but the witch raised her hand, asking him to be quiet. She turned around, walking back to the orphanage.

"Hermione!" Ron called after her, but she didn't turn back. "What the bloody hell has gotten into her?"

"I bet she didn't sleep well." Potter sighed. "We can't say a thing and she's already stressed."

"Yeah…"

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione slammed the orphanage's door shut and leaned against the wall, breathing deeply and trying to calm down… It wasn't working. She needed to go to a calmer place, somewhere quiet.

_'The library...'_

The girl walked quickly to her desired room. Even if the place was old and dirty, she felt relaxed in there; it was a place where she knew that Harry and Ron wouldn't bother her, where _no one_ would bother her… Once she got to the library, the witch let herself fall into a chair and laid her head down on her crossed arms on the table. She wished she could stay like that the whole day, not worried about a broken Time-Turner, a bad humored friend or an anti-social soon-to-be Dark Lord.

"It looks like that someone's stressed." She heard Tom Riddle's calm voice and sighed, turning her head so she could look at him.

"Shut up," Hermione whispered, feeling the great desire to get up and wipe that stupid smile that was on Tom's face as he sat down in front of her. Riddle grinned even more and looked down at the book he was holding. The girl, noticing that the other wouldn't leave anytime soon, got up from the chair, deciding that her room would be a much calmer place at the moment.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Erik? Are you sure about this…?"

"Mia, he won't do anything." The boy smiled and closed the door behind him. "We'll only take a quick look at his things."

The blonde girl muttered something under her breath and looked around nervously. Tom's room was like everyone else's room: dark, old and cold. Riddle was one of the few kids that didn't share his room with anyone else…Maybe it was because the other children thought he was strange or were afraid of him, or maybe it was because he had been there for such a long time that the matron decided he deserved his own room.

"Alright… The boy spends hours in his room reading!" Erik laughed and pointed at some books that were lying under the boy's bed. "Look, Mia…" He showed her a small book with a red cover and its title written in golden letters. _"Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them"._

The girl grabbed a few books from under the bed and started reading their titles. _"Discovering your future, Advanced Potion-Making, Standard Book of Spells, History of Magic…" _She furrowed her brows as she looked at the last book of the pile she had grabbed._ "Secrets of the Darkest Art"._

"What are these things that Riddle is reading?" The boy whispered, opening one of the books that his friend had handed out to him.

"Do you think he'll show up soon?"

"Don't be silly, it's time for dinner… He must be eating now. Look! He marked something in this one… _A Horcrux is an object in which one hides a fragment of their souls for the purpose of attaining immortality. Creating a Horcrux allows one the ability of resurrecting…"_

"Hide part of your soul? Gain the ability to resurrecting?" The girl shrieked. "What is that, Erik?"

"I don't know, Amelia." He looked at the book. "This is really odd."

"Erik, let's get out of here. He could show up anytime now…"

"He won't! And if he does, I won't let him hurt you, I swear!"

"Erik…" The boy didn't look at her for all his attention was focused on the book that he was looking at.

"No one reads these kinds of things, at least no one that's normal…"

"Alright..." She took the book from his hand and threw it under the bed. "Let's get out of here," Amelia whispered. "We shouldn't even be here!"

"For the first time in years, Cabot, I agree with you."

The teenagers froze in their places when they heard the cold voice coming from the doorway. Turning around, they saw Tom Riddle leaning against the door and looking at them, rage glinting in his blue eyes.

"Riddle, please… We didn't mean to…" the girl whimpered, watching the other boy come in their direction.

"For a moment, Cabot, I thought you were intelligent." Tom hissed. "Until you opened your mouth and started speaking nonsense again."

Erik stood up in a second and raised his fists, glaring at the other boy.

"Don't you dare hurt her!"

"And what will you do to stop me, Destler?"

Riddle came even closer, ignoring the threats coming from Erik. It was only when the wizard was close enough to touch them that Erik's fist hit him right in his face. Tom stumbled, grabbing his nose, which was now bleeding, and jumped on the other boy.

"Erik!" Amelia screamed, watching the two boys wrestle on the floor.

The truth was that if he used magic, Riddle could send the other boy flying across the room in a second… But without the help of spells he was only a weak seventeen year old boy. So, after being surprised by Erik, Tom became totally defenseless against the other boy's hands.

"Not so scary now, right, Riddle?"

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione was relieved by the fact that Harry and Ron hadn't spoken a word about Tom Riddle during dinner. The girl was smiling while she walked back to her room, wanting to get a good look at the books that she had bought earlier that day before going to bed.

"Erik! What have you done?" The witch saw a blonde girl standing in the middle of the corridor. It was the same girl that had been talking about her at the library.

"Come on, Mia." A boy came out of a room and dragged the blonde girl away by the hand.

Hermione furrowed her brows, trying to understand what made the two teenagers behave in such a way, and approached the room where the couple had come out a few minutes ago.

_"What the…?"_

There, sitting on the floor, was Tom Riddle, swearing under his breath as he covered his nose, which seemed to be bleeding, with his hand. The boy in the middle of the room was really different from the boy who had taken her to Diagon Alley: Tom's usually neat clothes and hair were in disarray, his face was covered in bruises and there was blood dripping from his nose and dirtying his lips, chin, fingers and shirt. It took some time for Riddle to notice that Hermione was in the room, but when he did, he a faint blush appeared and he glared at her.

"What happened in here?" the girl asked, closing the door behind her and approaching the other.

"None of your business," he sneered at her.

Ignoring his rudeness, the witch kneeled down in front of him and studied his face. She raised her hand and carefully touched Tom's bruised nose, but quickly retreated her hand as the wizard screamed with the contact.

"Why did you do that!" he asked, covering his nose again.

"It's broken," the witch answered, taking her wand out of her skirt pocket.

"And you didn't know that yet?" Riddle almost screamed, pointing at his bloodied face. "What are you going to do?"

"Fix it?"

"I won't let you cast a single spell on me!" He sneered and backed away a little.

"Come on, Riddle, you know it's not easy to fix your own nose with a spell." The girl held Tom's face and, before he could react, pointed her wand at his nose. "_Episkey!"_

A loud 'crack' was heard and the young man cried out in pain when he felt his nose being magically pushed back into place. Before he could do anything, the witch's fingers were touching his nose, making sure that everything was in the right place.

_"Oh, the irony… I'm fixing the nose of someone that, in the future, won't even have one." _Hermione laughed inwardly at the thought.

"Okay, it's fixed." She looked at the boy who was now trying to clean the blood on his face with the back of his hand. "I can clean it for you…"

"You've already done enough, Granger."

"You don't need to be rude…but, what happened? I mean, why did that boy punch you? What did you do to him?"

"Nothing," the wizard whispered. "I didn't _have time _to do anything."

"I thought you were the kind of wizard that would attack a Muggle without thinking twice if he tried to attack you," she muttered.

Tom just stared at her for some time before answering.

"Of course, Granger! It would be a great idea, right? Attack the boy and receive an warning from the Ministry for using magic against a Muggle!" He laughed sarcastically. "I could be expelled from Hogwarts if I did that… So, _no_, I wouldn't attack a Muggle with magic _even _if I wanted to. A Muggle is not worth risking my place at Hogwarts."

Hermione stared at the boy for a few minutes before getting up and leaving the room. She didn't think that it would be a good idea to be in the same room as the future Lord Voldemort when he was as furious as Tom was at the moment.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** I really like this chapter in portuguese, but I don't know if it's good now that it's in english ):

First of all... That scene where Erik attacks Tom, in the original, was a little bit different, I don't know if the change that I did is good or not XD In the original, Tom was without his wand, that's why he didn't fight back. Then I thought about this scene a little bit and... Well, I think that Riddle would be really careful about using magic on muggles because if he did that, he could be expelled from Hogwarts [as he said, even though he wanted to curse Erik, he wouldn't risk being expelled from Hogwarts...]. And Hermione fixing his nose... I don't know, but for me it must be really weird and complicated to fix your own nose [I imagined Tom with his wand pointed at his own face and saying "Episkey!" XD] ._.' And I think that Hermione is the kind of person that would want to help anyone, even is the person was... you know, Voldemort ._.'

Erik's last name came from that The Phantom of the Opera... I already saw a lot of fanfiction in wich the Phantom's last name was "Destler" [and Erik really is his name in the book]... Amelia's name came from princess Mia, from The Princess Diaries, and her last name is from The Princess Diaries author's name, Meg Cabot :D

So, I don't think I'll be able to post another chapter this weekend because I'll be traveling [yey! I'm going to São Paulo to watch Cats... you know, the musical *O*].

I don't rebember where I read t he quote from the beggining of the chapter... I t h i n k i t w a s s o m e w h e r e i n d e v i a n t a r t D :

Thanks everyone for the reviews on the last chapter :D You don't know how happy I am when I enter in the morning and see all the reviews that you left *_*

Beta read by **Shadow6116.**

.

.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	6. The Sorting Hat

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 6: The Sorting Hat**

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_"There's nothing hidden in your head  
The Sorting Hat can't see,  
So try me on and I will tell you  
Where you ought to be."  
__  
_- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Platform 9 ¾ was filled with young wizards and witches that were getting into the Hogwarts Express. Between the crowd of students, parents, pets and smoke from the locomotive, Harry, Ron and Hermione were making their way to an empty compartment that they had found near the end of the train. Once the three settled down, each of them started to entertain themselves a little.

"Am I the only one who's feeling like a first year that's never stepped into Hogwarts?" The red haired wizard asked while he looked outside the window at the crowd of parents on the platform.

"For everyone else, this _is_ our first year at Hogwarts," said the girl, starting to search for a book inside her bag.

"Is everything the same here in 1944? I mean… At Hogwarts," Harry asked when the train finally started to move.

"Did you read the letter from the school?" The witch raised an eyebrow, staring at her friends.

"Well… It was only another Hogwarts letter. We receive one every year," Ron answered. "So I didn't pay too much attention to it."

"If you had read the letter, you would know that there are some differences," Hermione explained. "Defenses Against the Dark Arts is divided into two classes…"

"Why?" Ron interrupted her.

"Let me finish." The young man nodded his head and she continued. "One is a theoretical class and the other is a practical class… Girls can choose one of them."

"And the boys?"

"They all do the practical class, Ron."

"Why the bloody hell girls can choose between the two classes and we can't?" Ron asked.

"Maybe because they think that girls aren't meant to duel? I mean, that's what we learn in Defense Against the Dark Arts…" This time it was Harry who spoke.

"Harry's right," the girl sighed. "We have to remember that we are in another decade and things are different here... Girls, for example, are supposed to be good housewives, not good at duels."

"And which class will you take?" the red haired asked.

"The practical one, Ron… I can't see myself taking a theoretical class of Defense." She smiled, looking down at her book.

For the rest of the journey, the trio talked about their situation and decided that, once they got to Hogwarts, they would speak with Dumbledore about who they really were, and ask him what they should do.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Tom sighed while he listened to the old headmaster say his well-known speech for the beginning of the school year. The Slytherin really wasn't interested in hearing the same words old Armando Dippet used to say year after year once again, but, as he couldn't do anything to stop the wizard from speaking, the boy simply kept staring at him while his mind was lost in his own thoughts, letting the headmaster's words pass by unnoticed by his ears.

"One last thing before we start the feast." The wizard raised his hand, asking the students to stay in silence. "This year, three new students are starting their seventh year here at Hogwarts… They came from France and I hope that you'll make them feel as if our school were their home."

The headmaster smiled at the students before walking back to his seat, letting Dumbledore take his position in front of the other teachers. Albus was holding the old Sorting Hat in his hand, and he stood right beside the stool where the first years had sat to be sorted earlier in the evening.

"Pevensie, Harry."

Upon hearing Dumbledore reading the new student's name, Riddle stretched his neck to give a better look at the dark haired boy who was now sitting on the stool with the Sorting Hat covering his face. After a few minutes, the hat screamed, **_"GRYFFINDOR!"_**

When "Purkiss, Ronald" was called, the Hat barely touched his head before announcing that he, too, would be a Gryffindor. The same was applied to the girl, "Granger, Hermione", who went to sit next to her friends with a wide grin plastered on her face. Tom watched the three of them sit down at their house's table. There was something really wrong with them. The Slytherin couldn't tell what was it but he knew – he could _feel_ - that they were hiding something.

"This is just what we needed," Alphard Avery, a curly haired boy sitting down next to Tom, muttered with a mocking tone. "More Gryffindors walking around the school."

"When Dumbledore said the girl's name, I expected a beautiful French witch, you know, like those Beauxbatons students we met last vacation, remember, Alphard?" Canopus Lestrange pulled a face while he looked at the trio. "Instead, we got no more than another weird girl… And her name, Granger, doesn't sound like a pure-blooded name."

"She is a Mudblood," Tom interrupted their conversation without bothering to look at them. "Now, could you please be quiet?"

The two young men stared at Riddle and shrugged, ignoring the other boy's bad mood.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"This is the girl's dormitory here in the Gryffindor Tower," a young version of Minerva McGonagall pointed to the interior of the cozy room filled with beds with dark red covers. "I sleep here too, along with the others who I believe you'll meet soon enough."

"Thanks for showing me everything in the Tower." Hermione smiled to her future teacher before looking at the golden badge with a 'P' imprinted on it that was hanging on her cloak. "I see that you're a prefect…"

"Yes."McGonagall smiled, walking to her bed and starting to undo the long braid in her hair. "They asked me to be Head Girl, but I refused… I have a lot of things to do this year. I mean, I have to study for the NEWTs, do all the school homework and practice Quidditch… Did I tell you that I play in the Gryffindor Quidditch team?"

"No, you didn't." Hermione couldn't help but laugh. She couldn't imagine Professor McGonagall flying on a broomstick and playing Quidditch. "What position do you play?"

"Chaser."

"Nice… I don't play, but I like to watch it."

"That's good!" Minerva smiled at her. "I bet you'll love it here in Gryffindor, I mean… I'm sure everyone'll do everything to make you and your friends feel comfortable, so, don't worry about this whole 'new school' stuff… If you need anything, we'll be right here for you."

"That's a great thing to hear, Minerva." Hemione sat down in her own bed and smiled back at her future teacher. "I'm sure we'll love Hogwarts and, of course, Gryffindor."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Did you understand everything?"

"Yes, Headmaster," Penelope Lynch, a blonde Ravenclaw girl, nodded and looked at the Slytherin boy standing next to her.

"You two will be sharing the same dormitory. It is in the second floor, behind Morgana's portrait." This time it was the deputy headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, who spoke, approaching the Head Boy and Head Girl before staring at them for several minutes. "The password is _Agnitio _… Oh, and your things are already there."

"I believe that's all," said Dippet. "You may go now."

Riddle said a "_Good Night_" to the teachers and left the room quickly, being followed by the Ravenclaw girl who was now talking to him. Of course the boy wasn't paying much attention to what the other was saying; after all, he wasn't in mood to listen to how 'excited' she was about being a Head Girl and how much of a 'honor' it would be to share that job with him.

"Mr. Riddle?" It was only when the witch grabbed his arm, almost making him trip over his own feet, that the Slytherin's attention went to her.

"What?"

Penelope opened her mouth to say something but suddenly stopped and kept staring at his face with a confused look on her face.

"What happened to you?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You have a big bruise here." She pointed to the exact spot on his face where the fading bruises left by Erik's punches were. "What happened? Did someone hit you?"

"I believe, Ms. Lynch, that this is none of your business." He sneered at her, noticing that they had finally arrived at the dormitory, and made a mental note for him to remember to cast more efficient spells to hide the bruises on his face the next time anything like the incident in the orphanage happened again.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** So, I'm back from São Paulo \o\ and here is the new chapter...it is short and kind weird... I don't really like it, but okay.

**1-** The idea of the two classes of DADA came to my mind after a History class that I had last year. Our teacher was talking about women during the Cold War... He said that during the WWII, women started to work more and all because men were fighting on the war, but after the war ended, women kinda went back to theri role as "housewifes". This fic takes place during the WWII and Grindelwald's war, but as it's said in HP's books, Grindelwald wasn't so strong in England, so I thought that, in England, witches were still being seen as "housewifes"... I don't know, It makes sense to me XD.

**2-** Minerva McGonagall playing Quidditch *-* I got this idea after seeing a fanart by Makani where young Minerva was wearing a Quidditch uniform XD.

**3- **I don't know if the Head Boy and the Head Girl have their own dormitory, but I've read so many fanfictions where they have their own dormitory that I choose to make it like this (:

Oh, there is a drawing for this chapter \o\ [actually, two drawings... but one of them is from a scene that I took of while I was translating this chapter]:  
**http : / fc09 . deviantart . net / fs51 / f / 2009 / 282 / 4 / 2 / Chap_2_by_Arileli . jpg**

Thanks a lot for the reviews *-*

Beta read by **Shadow6116**.

.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	7. Merrythought and Slughorn

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 7: Merrythought and Slughorn**

.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Morning! You must be the new students, right?" A young wizard with dark brown hair asked Harry, Ron and Hermione when they finally sat down to eat their breakfast on their first day of classes at Hogwarts. The boy was wearing a Gryffindor cloak and had a huge grin on his face, which, combined with the playful sparkle on his eyes, gave him a jovial look.

"Er, yes…" Ron answered, looking at his friends discretely, as if asking if they knew the reason that boy was talking to them.

"Ronald Purkiss, am I right? I'm Charlus Potter." The boy smiled and looked at the other wizard and the witch. "And you must be Harry Pevensie and Hermione Granger. Well, I just want to say I hope you three enjoy Hogwarts… I mean, the school is great and, if you need anything, you can just call any of us Gryffindors, and we'll do whatever you need done."

"I'm sure we'll enjoy the school, Charlus." Hermione smiled to the other Gryffindor. "By the way, our first class today is Defenses Against the Dark Arts… Could you show us the classroom after we're done with breakfast?"

"Oh, I can show them the classroom," answered Charlus. "But I think you can go with the girls to Sociére's class…"

"I thought the teacher was professor Merrythought."

"She is the teacher of practical Defenses," Potter explained. "And I believe that you'll take the theoretical classes, right?"

"Actually, no." The witch saw a mischievous smile appears on the boy's face.

"Wow! You'll make company for McGonagall." He laughed. "She's the only girl who takes the practical classes, you know."

Hemione shrugged and turned her attention back to her breakfast.

"Have you already finished?" Charlus Potter asked them after a few minutes of silence.

"Yes." The girl smiled, ignoring Ron when he gave a "No" to the other boy's question.

Charlus spoke the whole way to the classroom, explaining which corridor led to which classroom and, sometimes, telling them about one or two secret passageways that he had found in the castle. By the time they arrived at the Defense classroom, there were some students in it already. Hermione could see Minerva McGonagall smiling at them in her seat in the first row of desks in the classroom.

"Hello, Hermione." Their future Transfiguration teacher waved at them. "So, what do you think of Hogwarts so far?"

"Everything is great here, Minerva." The girl noticed how Harry and Ron kept staring at McGonagall as if she were some kind of alien and had to restrain herself from telling them to stop acting so oddly. "Ah, I think you don't know them yet…" She pointed at her friends. "Harry Pevensie and Ronald Purkiss."

"It's a pleasure to meet you." The young witch smiled. "I'm Minerva McGonagall, Gryffindor's prefect and a Chaser of the Quidditch team… By the way, do any of you play Quidditch?"

"You're a…? Anyway, yeah," the Boy-Who-Lived answered and smiled. "I play as a seeker." He then pointed at Ron. "And he plays as keeper."

"Really? Well, we do need of a seeker in our team, since our former one graduated last year," said McGonagall. "If you want to try, trials will be in the next few days."

Hermione smiled when she saw that her friends seemed to relax a little bit and had left the subject of 'Voldemort' aside for now. The witch sat on an empty chair and took her heavy Defense book out of her bag, opening it at a random page and started to read it.

"The year barely started and you're already looking forward to the most difficult spells in our book."

The girl tore her eyes off the book's page and turned to see who spoke with her. Sitting next to her was Tom Riddle. The boy had a mocking expression on his face and a fake little smile was playing on his lips as he craned his neck to be able to see what was written in the page she was reading.

"I heard that only very experienced wizard can perform a Patronus," he said, pointing at her book.

"That must be true," Hermione answered and looked calmly back at him, not letting his cold stare intimidate her. "But everyone in this classroom has the potential to do it."

"I can't agree with you on this, Granger," Riddle whispered, putting his own Defense book on the table and tapping its cover with the tips of his pale fingers. "Soon you'll learn that here at Hogwarts we have those who are powerful." He stopped and smirked. "And those who are weak."

"The weak ones just need to try a little bit harder to become powerful, Riddle."

"Granger, Granger… Another thing that you'll learn here is that it isn't just with 'trying a little bit harder' that you'll manage to get what you want," he said, sighing as he stopped tapping the book and turned his head to look at girl. "Sometimes, there are stronger factors that influences a wizard's magic."

"Are you talking about blood, Riddle? Because, if you are, let me tell you just because I have Muggle blood it doesn't mean that I'm not as good as a pure-blooded wizard."

Tom stared at her for some before smiling.

"We'll see, Granger."

The girl opened her mouth to say something but before any word came out, the Defenses Against the Dark Arts teacher entered the classroom. Galatea Merrythought had a gentle face marked with wrinkles and framed by her white hair. The witch looked at her students for some time with her kind blue eyes, as if making sure that everyone was in her class, before speaking.

"Good morning. It's a pleasure to start the year with such a great class as yours. Also, it is with great pleasure that I welcome to our class Mr. Purkiss and Pevensie … and Ms. Granger." The witch looked at the girl and smiled. "We finally have another girl in this class." The teacher looked away and, with a flick of her wand, a few written instructions started to appear on the black board in front of the class. "Well, as you know, this is the year in which you'll have to do the NEWTs examinations and I want to see every one of you getting an 'Outstanding' in it, because I know that you can do it." She cast a quick glance towards Riddle before continuing. "Also, we'll start with more difficult spells this year… Could anyone give me an example of…?" Before she could finish, Tom's hand shot up in the middle of the class. "Mr. Riddle?"

"The Patronus Charm."

"Good, Mr. Riddle. The Patronus Charm is one of the most advanced spells that we'll learn this year. Sometimes, even a seventh year student may find it difficult to perform it… It's these kind of spells that you'll learn this year."

Hermione discovered that she would enjoy Merrythought's classes. The witch explained everything in an easy and quick way, just how she wanted a class to be.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The last class of the day was Potions, which was held, as always, in the dungeons and was taught by Horace Slughorn. The trio noticed that the Professor Slughorn they knew from the future wasn't too different from the Slughorn from 1944; after all, the man was still loud and cheerful.

"We'll start our year with a simple potion," Horace said while he walked around his classroom, looking at his students one by one. "It's a Calming Potion… You may need it this year due to the stress that the NEWTs may cause. You can find all the information you need in your books at page fifteen."

The students hurried to the cabinet where the ingredients were kept. While she was getting everything that she needed, Hermione saw Charlus Potter helping a small Slytherin girl that was trying to carry a bunch of bottles full of ingredients to her table.

"Be careful, Dorea." The witch smiled, watching how the Slytherin witch blushed and smiled when Potter spoke to her.

"Thanks, Charlus."

_'Charlus and Dorea Potter,' _she thought, looking at Harry, who was on the table preparing his cauldron, and noticing how much he resembled the small girl his grandfather was speaking to._"Harry's grandparents!"_

The girl stopped looking at the future Mr. and Mrs. Potter and approached her cauldron, where she started to prepare the potion Slughorn had asked them to do. Even though the girl stopped once in a while to help Harry and Ron, it didn't take too long for her to finish, being one of the first students to do so.

"I see that someone has already finished here." The potion's teacher approached her cauldron and smiled. "Let's see how good it is…" Slughorn stared at the liquid for some time, trying to see if there was anything wrong with it before finally speaking. "This is very good work. Your potion is extraordinary, Ms…"

"Granger, sir."

"Granger! The new girl… I suppose that you are a Muggle-born, am I right?" The witch nodded. "Well, I've never seen such a talented Muggle-born as you, Ms. Granger… Has anyone else finished it yet?"

Hermione looked around and saw Minerva and Riddle with their arms raised. The teacher approached McGonagall's cauldron and looked at her potion, but quickly walked away, saying that she had made a mistake when she was brewing her Calming Potion, which made the young witch grimace as she watched the Potions Master.

"Another perfect potion." Slughorn laughed, pointing to Tom's cauldron. "But this is everything I can expect from you, right, Tom?"

Riddle's head turned and he was now staring at her with a small fake smile twisting his lips and a defiant look on his face. The girl took a deep breath before turning around and starting to help her friends with their potions, ignoring the way the future Lord Voldemort seemed to be challenging her.

"Ms. Granger?" Hermione heard someone calling her when she was about to exit the classroom after the class had ended. Turning around, she saw Professor Slughorn smiling at her. "May I speak with you?"

"Of course, sir."

"Well, I must say that you are a excellent potion maker, my dear." The wizard smiled. "You and Mr. Riddle are the best in this class…"

"Oh, Mr. Riddle, he seems to be really… Intelligent," she whispered and restrained herself from rolling her eyes.

"Oh, yes, he is! He is a great boy," the Potion's Master said. "But it's not about Mr. Riddle that I want to talk about with you… You know, there is a small group of students with whom I sometimes have for a tea or a dinner. We call it 'the Slug Club.'" He laughed quietly. "And I'd like to know if you don't want to pass by sometime."

"I… hmm… I would love to, Professor." The girl smiled uncomfortably, remembering the few Slug Club meetings she had been at in her sixth year.

"Very well! I'm sure you'll enjoy it." Slughorn tapped her shoulder, guiding her to his classroom's door. "Look out for my owl, Ms. Granger!"

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Another chapter :D God, I can't believe that messed up with the last chapters... I don't know how to explain, but it simply deleted all those divisions between the chapters, you know? I'll have to upload them again ¬¬'

Thanks everyone who reviewed the last chapter *_*

I don't have too much things to say about this chapter... So, that's it.

Oh, yeah... Drawings \o\ - **http : / fc09 . deviantart . com / fs51 / f / 2009 / 283 / 0 / 2 / Fanfic_sketches_by_Arileli . jpg**

Beta read by **Shadow6116**

**.**

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	8. Don't you dare to scream

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 8: Don't you dare to scream**

.

_"How beautiful it would be if we lived every day with our own face, without any mask"_

_._

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

It was late and almost all the students were already in their dormitories, sleeping. The excitement brought on by the new school year had already vanished and all the young witches and wizards were already feeling the exhausting reality of the Hogwarts classes. The only person who wandered through the corridors at that time of night was the Head Boy, Tom Riddle. The boy walked calmly along the quiet corridors, making sure that everything was in its right place… But anyone that took a careful look at him would notice that Riddle didn't seem to be really interested in his Head Boy activities. In fact, he seemed to be completely ignoring them.

After going up and down the same corridor for at least two times, making sure that there was no one around, the Slytherin sneaked into an empty boy's restroom.

"We thought you wouldn't show up."

"Avery said that he had something important to tell me and I promised that would come," the boy said, locking the door behind him and muttering a spell before turning around to look at the others. "And I wouldn't break my promise, would I?"

"We have discovered some things about the new students." a tall young man said, approaching Riddle.

"What?" Tom turned around and stared at one of the mirrors that were hanging above the sinks, looking at the other boys' faces through its reflection for a moment before fixing his gaze upon his own face reflected in the mirror.

"They came from France, running away from Grindelwald! We discovered that it's because the girl is a Mudblood," another boy spoke and laughed quietly. "And the families of the two boys were teaching magic to her and… Well, you know that Grindelwald dislikes anything that has Muggle blood."

When the boy stopped talking, no one said anything, waiting for Riddle to speak. It took some time for the Slytherin say something.

"Malfoy…"

"Yes?"

"Do you remember that I told you some details about my vacation?"

"Y-Yes… You said that you had already met the new students," a blonde boy that had been quiet until now whispered. "You said that Dumbledore had told you about what happened to them…"

"Very well, Abraxas, very well… Now, could you lend me your wand, please?" The Slytherin smiled and stretched his arm to receive the wand the other wizard held out to him after hesitating for few seconds.

Tom turned around and approached the boy who had brought him the information about the transferred trio. The other wizard was taller than Riddle, and seemed to be much stronger too. It was obvious that he could easily shove the smaller boy away from himself easily if he wanted to do so, but he simply stood there, lookng at Tom in fear.

"Tell me, Avery…" The Heir of Slytherin started to speak, holding Malfoy's wand in his right hand while he let the fingers of his left hand slide along the carved wood. "Why did you call a meeting to tell me something that I already knew?"

"I-I had forgotten…"

"You forgot what I said, Avery?" Tom stared at him with an emotionless face. "You forgot what I said?" The calm in Riddle's voice quickly disappeared, and his expression changed from blank to enraged. "**_CRUCIO!"_**

Avery fell to the floor, screaming and writhing with pain, while the other boys took a step back, scared of their leader's sudden change of mood. Tom held his ground, looking down at the wizard on the floor without any trace of pity in his eyes.

"LEARN NOT TO FORGET WHAT I SAY, AVERY!" Riddle screamed, pointing the wand at Alphard. "And don't you dare scream; otherwise I'll give you a much worse row of the Cruciatus."

After speaking, the smaller boy took a deep breath and, as if by magic, his blank mask slid back into his face while he kept staring at his classmate who was groaning on the floor. Tom, unlike the others, didn't seem to be bothered by the sight of Avery being tortured… His eyes were impassive, his face didn't express any emotion at all and his breathing was normal.

"I hope this taught you a lesson," the young man whispered, waving his wand and lifting the curse from the other. "I hope this taught all of you a lesson."

"Y-Yes…" Avery groaned, turning his head to look at the Head Boy.

"Yes, _what_?"

"Yes… _my lord…"_

An evil smirk spread over Riddle's lips when he heard what the other had said. Watching the other boy for a few minutes, Tom turned around and went to the restroom's door, unlocking and opening it.

"Next time you call a meeting," he muttered. "Make sure you do it for a useful reason."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione yawned, looking at the heavy and dirty book that she was trying to read. The girl ran her hand trough her bushy hair and started reading again, trying to concentrate on the ancient runes that filled the old and yellowed pages. Since she had gotten back to Hogwarts, whenever she had a free time, the witch went to the library and tried to read as much as she could on the old _The_ _Tales of Beedle the Bard _copythat she now owned. Harry and Ron didn't seem to care about what she was doing during the time she spent in the library; in fact, they spent most of their time with Minerva and Charlus, talking about Quidditch or ranting about Riddle.

_'For one moment, the warlock knelt triumphant, with a heart clutched in each hand; then he fell across the maiden's body, and died.'_

"That's lovely," she whispered as she read the ending of _The Warlock's Hairy Heart. _"Absolutely lovely."

"Good morning, Granger," a calm and familiar voice spoke.

Hermione turned around in her chair and saw Tom Riddle standing right behind her with his eyes locked on the book that was on the table.

"What are you reading?" he asked, faking an interested tone on his voice and sitting next to her.

"_The_ _Tales of Beedle the Bard." _The Gryffindor answered as she watched the boy putting his hand over the book and dragging it towards him without even asking her permission to do so.

"These are children's fairy tales, right?" The boy laughed sarcastically while he turned the pages. "Well, well, well…as much as a talented witch as you are, Ms. Granger, you're choosing to read such a childish book …"

"It's interesting, Riddle." She gave him a fake smile of her own before stretching her arms and grabbing the book, taking it away from the Slytherin. "And I've never read it before…"

"Oh, yes… I had forgotten that you are a Muggle-born."

The witch glared at him with annoyance, but that didn't seem to frighten him. The smug smirk was still on the young wizard's face and his eyes were sparkling with amusement. She sighed and stood up, realizing that she couldn't stand his presence anymore.

"Where are you going?"

"Somewhere where I can read in peace, without you to bother me."

"Hey…" The girl felt Riddle's cool and long fingers closing around her hand and pulling her back into her chair. "You don't need to go away, Granger, I'm already leaving."

The Slytherin let go of her hand and stood up, giving her one last fake smile before disappearing between the library's bookshelves. Hermione breathed deeply, trying to calm down, but before she could be totally calm, she heard Harry and Ron's voices coming from somewhere near her.

"Mione? What are you doing?" the red haired boy asked, sitting in the same place where Riddle had been a few minutes ago.

"I'm reading." She showed them the book.

"Reading? It's such a beautiful day out there." Harry pointed to the nearest window. "And you're in the library! Reading! For Merlin's sake, Hermione… Why don't you come with us? We can play a bit of Quidditch with Charlus and Minerva."

"Thanks, Harry, but I think I'll stay in here. I'm trying to finish this as soon as possible… And you know how much I _love _Quidditch."

The two boys looked at each other and shrugged, whispering something that sounded like _"Okay, if you want to…"_

"Okay, how about this: I'll just finish one last tale and then I'll meet you both outside, alright?"

"Yes!" Ron laughed, tapping on the girl's shoulder. "See you at the Quidditch pitch, okay?"

"Granger?" The three of them turned around to see Riddle standing next to their table, curiosity in his eyes.

"What is it now, Riddle?" The witch whispered.

"Thanks to our really _interesting _conversation I forgot to tell you something," Tom said, analyzing each one of them with his icy eyes. "Professor Slughorn asked me to tell you that the first meeting of the Slug Club will be next Thursday. Have a good day."

And with that, the Slytherin disappeared between the bookshelves once again.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** I love this chapter... I don't know why. It was the first time I wrote Tom being truly evil and it was nice... I felt as if I had more liberty to write him, I mean... he didn't have to restrain himself from being Voldemort [oh, yeah, that was nice too... I felt as if I wasn't writting Tom Riddle anymore, I was writing Voldemort :D And, yeah, I feel that there is a difference between them when I write].

Uhm, about Tom borrowing Abraxas' wand... Well, I think that he would do that so there wouldn't be any trace of dark magic on his own wand.

The quote from _Tales of Beedle the Bard_ is from the tale _"The Warlock's Hairy Heart"._ [I love that tale o_o ]

Another drawing: **http : / fc07 . deviantart . net / fs50 / f / 2009 / 284 / e / 1 / Crucio_by_Arileli . jpg**

I think that's it :D Thanks a lot for the reviews *-* And thanks everyone who favourited this fanfiction, even if you are not reviewing it (: [anyway, it would be really nice if you did :D ]

Beta read by **Shadow6116**

**.**

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	9. The Slug Club

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 9: The Slug Club**

.

_"Enemies are powerful, and they are everywhere where there are more than three men living. They are in the air, they are in the spirit"_

_- John Lennon_

_._

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

When the class ended, all the students almost ran to outside the History of Magic classroom, leaving the still-alive Professor Binns talking to himself. Hermione stood by the door, waiting for Harry and Ron, who were talking with Charlus Potter and Septimus Weasley, Ron's grandfather.

"Hey, Hermione," she saw Minerva waving at her. "Will you go to Slughorn's meeting today?"

"Yes… And you?"

"No, I have to finish this essay about the Goblin Rebellion that Binns gave us," she explained. "I want to finish it as soon as possible."

"I see…"

"But don't worry," McGonagall smiled. "Slughorn's meetings are nice… He always has biscuits and tea for us."

Hermione laughed, looking at her friends that were still talking with the other two boys from Gryffindor. Sighing, she looked at her watch before turning to Minerva.

"Do you have any other classes today?"

"No. And I don't think I would be able to endure more classes if I did… At least not after two periods of History of Magic in a row."

"So, how about we go back to the Tower?" The girl motioned to the boys who were still talking inside the classroom. "It looks like they won't be coming so soon."

"You're right." Minerva laughed. "Charlus won't leave them alone so early. I can tell you, Hermione, that I feel bad for the witch who marries him. She'll have to stand his terrible habit of not knowing when to stop talking for the rest of her life! That must be torture."

"You mean you feel bad for Dorea, right?"

"Well, yeah, everything shows that."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Tom Riddle looked at the clock that was hanging on the wall of Slughorn's classroom and sighed when he noticed that it had only fifteen minutes had passed since he had arrived at this ridiculous meeting that his teacher insisted having. The boy let his thoughts wander far away from the boring conversation the was going on between the Potions Master and his students, occupying himself by making a small "to-do list" in his mind.

"Ah, Ms. Granger, come in!" The Slytherin was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the teacher's voice. Slughorn was now waving at the Gryffindor girl who had just entered the room. "Sit down, miss… There's an empty chair right next to Tom."

The young man looked at the girl who was now sitting beside him. She seemed to be nervous about being in the middle of all the boys… Well, he couldn't blame her for feeling that way at the time.

"Ms. Granger, as you already know, was homeschooled by her friend's parents, Messrs. Pevensie's and Purkiss's," said Slughorn. "What caught my attention was how much of a great potion maker Ms. Granger was during our last Potions class…Especially for being a Muggleborn."

"Sir," Everyone turned their heads to look at Riddle, who was now smiling softly. "I don't know about you, but, I believe that blood doesn't change anything when it comes to our ability in magic. Ms. Granger can be a great witch even if she's a Muggle-born, a half-blood or a pure-blood…" The boy looked at the girl, who gave him an irritated look.

"You're right, Tom. Everyone in Hogwarts has the potential to become great wizards and witches." The teacher took a sip of his tea before continuing. "The difference is in how hard they work to achieve greatness."

"That's exactly what Ms. Granger told me a few days ago, sir." Riddle laughed quietly, ignoring the way the Gryffindor by his side took a deep breath as if she was restraining herself from saying something. The other boys, all of them from Slytherin, smirked and chuckled a little, glancing quickly in Riddle's direction from time to time. The Head Boy looked at Hermione and was pleased to see that she looked quite serious.

"Miss, I heard about your parents' death and I must say I feel extremely sorry for that," Slughorn spoke, not noticing the tense atmosphere that was starting appear. "But, could you tell us what they were in the Muggle world?"

"They are… Were… Dentists," the witch spoke and, this time, Tom had to restrain himself from laughing after seeing the almost comical expressions that appeared on his friends' and Slughorn's faces. It was obvious they wouldn't know what a dentist did; after all, in the Wizarding world, only a simple spell was needed to fix a few crooked or decayed teeth. "They took care of people's teeth."

"Ah! Interesting, very interesting." The teacher smiled.

"They worked with other people's… teeth?" A boy with dark hair and gray eyes asked, grimacing. "I mean, they fixed teeth? Without spells? _How?_"

"Yes." Granger smiled nervously. "They put braces in peoples' mouths, you know… Small things made of metal that help the teeth grow the right way."

"Well, Mr. Black," the boy, who was still looking at Hermione with disbelief, turned his head to look at the teacher. "How's your father? Too much work at the Ministry?"

"He's doing well, sir. He's investigating the supposed Apparitions of Grindelwald in England."

"And why isn't your cousin Cygnus here tonight?"

"He had to finish a Transfiguration project, sir."

"Ah, Dumbledore wants to murder our students with homework right in the first weeks of the school year!" Slughorn laughed and the students smiled at him uncomfortably.

While the Potions Master kept talking about how Albus Dumbledore seemed to be eager to bury his students under piles of homework, Tom looked at the empty cup in front of him. At least these meetings served to allow him to have a good cup of tea. The boy grabbed the teapot and poured the liquid inside his cup, before looking to his side and noticing that Granger kept staring at her own hands, which were occupied in twisting the fabric of her jumper.

"Ms. Granger?" The witch raised her head and looked at him with an almost scared expression. "Tea?"

"Er…" The girl looked at the empty cup in front of her. "Yes, thank you."

The Slytherin served her the tea and, after putting the teapot aside, stared at the girl after hearing her giggle quietly.

"What's so funny, Ms. Granger?" Tom whispered.

"Nothing, Riddle." She stopped laughing, but a playful smile was still clinging to her lips as she stared at her cup of tea.

"What?" he asked when she looked up at him expectantly.

"Won't you pour the milk for me?"

"For Merlin's sake," The boy rolled his eyes, shaking his head slightly and taking a sip of his tea. "The milk is right by you, pour it yourself."

"And you drink tea like that? Pure?" the Gryffindor whispered, staring at him.

"Yes, do you have any problem with that?"

"No, not at all."

"Good."

The rest of the meeting was boring… Well, at least for Tom. The boy hated to admit he always got lost between all those conversations about pure-blooded relatives who worked for the Ministry or about the silly traditions of traditional families, like the Blacks or the Malfoys. From time to time, Slughorn asked Hermione a few questions about her Muggle life, but the girl never immersed herself into the subject because she knew very well that none of the Slytherins present were interested to hear about how her life was before she went to Hogwarts.

"Oh, look at the time!" The teacher said, finally looking at the golden pocket watch he carried around. "You should go back to your dormitories. Good night… I'll let you know the day of our next meeting."

Slowly, Tom stretched his arms and took a deep breath, before getting up and watching Granger getting up quickly. The, the boy laughed when he saw the girl's attempt to get out of the room as soon as possible get ruined when Slughorn called her.

"You seem to be a little lost, Ms. Granger." Riddle heard the older wizard speaking while he finished drinking his tea and left his cup on the table, finally noticing that all the other students had already left.

"Well, I'm the only girl here… and the only Gryffindor." Hermione answered, laughing nervously.

_'And the only Mudblood,' _Tom thought while he walked to the door, laughing as he started to think about how long it would take for Slughorn to stop talking. Well, at least it was Granger who would have to stand his voice and not him this time.

"That's true." The Potion's teacher laughed. "But these boys are very friendly… Mr. Riddle for example… Ah! Tom, could you come over here for a minute?"

The Slytherin couldn't help but roll his eyes and curse himself for not being fast enough to leave the room, before turning around and approaching the teacher with a fake smile on his lips.

"Tom, isn't it true that Ms. Granger shouldn't be so shy around us? I mean, we're Slytherins, but it's not as if we are the worst things in the world!"

"Of course, sir." Tom nodded. "I'm sure Ms. Granger will find the next meetings much more… interesting."

"That's true, Tom." The boy took a deep breath when the teacher put a hand on his shoulder and his other on the Hermione's, guiding them to the door. He hated when someone touched him, it was almost agonizing. "Next time, miss, you don't need to be so worried… Now, I think it's better for you to go back to your dormitories; after all, it's already quite late. Good night."

"Good night, professor," the witch said.

"Good night, sir."

The corridor outside Slughorn's room was empty and dark, as it expected at this time of the night.

"You shouldn't get too excited about what Slughorn is trying to do… Making you be friends with us," Riddle said quietly as he walked next to her.

"I know, but it's not as if I'm too excited about it either." She smirked a little.

"And it's not as if we even want you around."

"Ouch! Talking that way, Mr. Riddle, you'll end up hurting my feelings!" The girl laughed loudly and put her hand over her heart. "Can't you be a little gentler?"

Tom raised an eyebrow and stared at her for a moment. That Mudblood really didn't know who she was playing with… Most of the people, when they heard him speaking in that tone of voice, would shut up and go away, leaving him alone, but Granger seemed to get even more excited every time he tried to push her away.

"I'm sorry, but I believe my gentleness is not worth being wasted on Mudbloods."

The Gryffindor abruptly stopped walking when she heard what he had said and took a deep breath, before speaking again, in a very calm voice.

"Riddle, Riddle… It's really sad that we poor Mudbloods are not to be granted with your gentleness, oh great Tom Riddle!" As soon as she said it, Hermione started walking again, leaving the Slytherin behind. Tom pressed his lips together and narrowed his eyes while he watched her.

"You'll learn not to mess with those who are more powerful than you, Granger," he said, trying to control his voice. "Be warned, Mudblood."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

As soon as she got to Gryffindor Tower, Hermione Granger didn't know what she wanted to do the most: to go to bed, to find Harry and Ron or to curse Riddle and all of his ancestors until she was too tired to go on.

"Hey, Mione."

The girl turned to see Harry and Ron in a corner of the common room, playing wizard chess. The scene made the witch feel a strange wave of nostalgia… It looked like she was back in her own time, watching her friends playing wizard chess the same carefree way they used to play back in their first year.

"Hi."

"How's the Slug Club?" asked Ron, without raising his eyes from the game.

"It was nice." The girl saw her friends looking at her with a funny expression on their faces. "Alright, it was terrible." She laughed. "As boring as it used to be, but now the aggravating Riddle is there to annoy me."

"What did he do this time?" This time it was Harry who asked.

"Nothing, Harry… I mean, he kept being a git, but that's just his nature." She shrugged. "It's funny to think that I had tea with the Dark Lord today."

"It's odd."

"Don't tell me." Hermione laughed. "He is odd."

"Great discovery." The green eyed boy laughed.

"And a liar… and a hypocrite." The girl rolled her eyes. "He wouldn't stop agreeing with Slughorn when he was talking about how blood status won't influence in our magic, but, as soon as the teacher turned around, Riddle didn't hesitate to call me a Mudblood."

"He did what?"

"Ron, I'm already used to it, alright? You don't need to go after him just because he called me a Mudblood."

"Well, if it helps," said Harry, looking to the chess game for a moment. "Riddle can very well be called a 'Mudblood' too… You know… Witch mother and Muggle father. It's a hell of a combination of magical and Muggle blood."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** I like this chapter... I always liked the Slug Club and since I read HBP for the first time, I couldn't help but think that the Slug Club from the forties actually was a Club of Death Eaters... I know I didn't mention some of the other boys that appeared in the HBP in the Slug Club, but they were in the scene, I just didn't mentioned them XD

About this chapter...

**1- _"I'm having tea with Lord Voldemort… How nice!"- _**_... _Wouldn't it be nice to have tea with the Dark Lord himself? Hehe, ok, maybe not...

**2- Hermione talking about her parents - **I loved this scene in the movie. Hermione explaining to everyone what dentists do... Amazing :D [Useless information: both my parents are dentists... and my sister was born in the same day as Hermione, 19th of September :D sheisalittlehermione! *silly*]

**3- _"Riddle, Riddle… It's really sad that we, poor mudbloods, aren't granted with your gentleness" _**_- _I love to see Hermione defying Tom... I think it may be the first time that a muggle born has the courage to defy him, and he is both annoyed and amused with that.

Drawing :D - **http : / fc09 . deviantart . net / fs51 / f / 2009 / 285 / f / 7 / Teacher_s_pets_by_Arileli . jpg **[my old drawings are so weird D: but okay, I don't have time to draw those scenes again ): ]

Beta read by **Shadow6116**.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	10. Densaugeo

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 10: Densaugeo**

.

_"Snape looked coldly at Hermione, then said, 'I see no difference'"_

_Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire_

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Hermione? Did you hear me?"

"Huh? Oh, I'm sorry, Ron." The girl shook her head before looking at her friend. "I wasn't paying attention."

"Yeah, I've noticed." The red-haired wizard laughed. "Anyway, I was just saying that the trials for the Quidditch team are today, and Harry is going to try…"

"I thought we had agreed that Harry wouldn't to try to enter the team," Hermione whispered, leaning close to her friend so no one would hear what she was saying. "Can't you take it seriously? We can't change the past!"

"Hey, it won't make much difference if Harry enters the Quidditch team! You already joined the Slug Club…"

"Ron, I only joined that thing because if I didn't, Slughorn wouldn't stop bothering me for the rest of the school year." She got up, leaving half of her lunch in her plate, and took her bag. "I'll be going to Defense."

"But, Mione, class won't start until the next twenty minutes!"

Ignoring her friend, the girl kept walking away. The witch walked past by Harry, who was entering the Great Hall to have lunch, and just shot him an annoyed look when he greeted her. She couldn't understand how her friends didn't seem to care about how dangerous it could be if they changed anything in the past! It was like they thought this time they were spending in the 1940s was some kind of vacation where they could play Quidditch every day and do whatever they wanted all the time.

When she finally got to the classroom, the witch noticed that the door was still locked. Sighing, she sat on the floor and leaned against the wall, opening her bag and taking out _The __Tales of Beedle the Bard_ and opening it on her lap. Maybe she could finish another tale while she was waiting; after all, like Ron had said, the class would take at least twenty minutes to start.

"Look who's already here." She heard a male voice say in a mocking tone. "The Mudblood Granger."

Looking up to who was speaking to her, Hermione saw a group of Slytherins standing in front of her. There was a blond boy with blue eyes and sharp features among them. He had a smug smile on his thin lips. _'Abraxas Malfoy; he was at the Slug Club,' _she thought. '_Must be as much of a fool as his grandson'._

"Tell me, Mudblood… You must have felt important when Slughorn asked you to join his little club, right?" Another boy asked. This one was taller than Malfoy and had dark curly hair. "Don't get too used to it; we'll make sure that you'll lose interest in the Slug Club very soon."

"I know… Avery, right?" the witch said, giving him a fake smile. "You master already made sure to warn me that you aren't very fond of _'Mudbloods.'_"

"Don't you dare to speak to us like that," Malfoy hissed, taking his wand out of his pocket.

"And what are you going to do with me, Malfoy?" The witch got up and put her hand in her cloak pocket, closing her fingers around her wand.

"You filthy Mudblood…!" the blond muttered. "_Everte Statum!"_

The girl jumped aside, barely avoiding the spell that the other had cast. She took her wand out and waved it, muttering a spell.

"_Alarte Ascendare."_ Hermione saw Abraxas dodge the bright spell that came from her wand, and it hit the floor right next to him.

_"Densaugeo!"_

The girl who was still trying to hit Malfoy with a spell didn't see the curse coming from Avery. When the spell hit her, she felt a strange tingling in her mouth. Touching her lips, Hermione felt her front teeth growing… The girl felt her eyes burn with tears when she recognized the spell and tried to hide her face behind her hands.

_'**No!**__No, no, no… Not that!'_

"What is going on here?" The two Slytherin boys stopped laughing, turning around to see Tom Riddle standing at the end of the corridor, his eyes sweeping over them. As he approached them, the young man seemed to be both amused and annoyed with the scene. Abraxas and Avery took a step aside, looking afraid of how Riddle would react to what he was seeing.

"Ten points from Slytherin," the boy said and extended his hand to grab Hermione's wrist. She tried to jerk away from him, but his grip was too strong. "Come with me."

He lead Hermione through the corridors, where some students stopped to stare at them and whisper about the girl's teeth. Riddle ignored them and kept dragging her far away from the other students, only stopping when they finally found themselves in an empty corridor.

"Let me see it," he ordered her but the witch just shook her head, shrinking behind her hands even more. "I can't fix it if you don't show it to me."

"And why would you want to fix it?" she asked him. "I wouldn't be surprised if you made it worse than it already is!"

Tom didn't say anything; he just held her wrists and took her hands away from her face. The wizard had to restrain himself from laughing when he finally saw how bad it was … She looked like a beaver thanks to her abnormally big teeth. Also, her face was blotchy and her eyes were puffy thanks to crying.

"Take me to the Hospital Wing, Riddle," Hermione asked him, cursing herself for not stopping crying while she tried to wipe the tears from her cheeks with her hands. "Madam Pomfrey will know what to do…"

"Pomfrey? Our healer is Madam Heilen," he said, raising his eyebrow. "Anyway, I can fix it easily…"

"You just don't want to take me to Madam Pom-_Heilen _because she can punish your friends for what they have done, right?"

"Maybe, Granger. Now, can I fix it before the Defense class starts?"

The girl hesitated a little and looked up at Riddle, who was now holding his wand in front of her face. After taking a deep breath and wiping her tears with her fingers, the girl nodded.

"Alright… Just wait a moment." The witch opened her bag and started rummage inside it.

"Granger, what are you…?"

"I want to be able to tell you when they get to their normal size." She showed him a small mirror and positioned it in an angle in which she could see her mouth. "Alright, now."

_"Denscurtus."_

When the boy whispered the spell, Hermione felt the same odd tingling on her mouth and saw her teeth starting to shrink. The girl nodded when she noticed that her teeth were at their former size and Riddle quickly stopped the spell, lowering his wand and putting it in his cloak pocket.

"Done."

"Thank you," Hermione said quietly, touching her front teeth. "No wonder your friends didn't know what a dentist is… They can fix their teeth with a spell like this one so easily."

"You're welcome," the boy said. "But don't think that I've changed my opinion about you, Granger."

"Then what made you help me?" she asked him.

The Slytherin didn't answer. He just pointed at his own nose and the image of Riddle sitting in his room back at the orphanage, trying to hide his broken and bloodied nose from her came to the witch's mind… She also remembered that it had been her that had helped him back then, even if it had been against Tom's will.

"Our class must have started by now," he muttered, looking at his watch. "I don't know about you, but I don't want to miss Defense."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Here is another chapter... I really like this one... It's kinda nostalgic for me XD When I read it I always remember the first time I read that scene in Goblet of Fire where Draco shot a Densaugeo at Hermione, I remember that I loved that scene when I first read it :D

About this chapter...

**1 - Densaugeo: **the spell Draco used on Hermione in Goblet of Fire, pages 262/263.

**2- Denscurtus: **according to the latin translator that I used...** Dens =** teeth/ **curtus = **shorten.

**3- _"The slytherin didn't answer, he just pointed at his own nose.": _**after I wrote this scene, a friend of mine read it and she told me that, somewhere in HBP, Dumbledore or Slughorn says that Voldemort didn't like to be in debt with anyone... But when I wrote it I didn't remember that XD... anyway, I think that Tom would help her just because she helped him.

Drawing :D - **http : / fc08 . deviantart . net / fs50 / f / 2009 / 287 / b / 2 / Another_scene_by_Arileli . jpg**

Beta read by** Shadow6116.**

Hope you enjoyed it.

Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	11. Who does she think she is?

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 11: Who does she think she is?**

**.**

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Defense Against the Dark Arts became kinda boring after Dumbledore's Army," Ron said quietly while he got up from the floor after being hit by a spell shot by Harry.

"At least we already know how to perform the spells," the other Gryffindor said. "But, changing the subject, where's Hermione? It's been ten minutes since the class started."

"I have no idea, mate," the red haired boy muttered, looking around to try to find their friend. "And she came to the classroom before we did…"

The two of them stopped talking when they noticed that someone had arrived to the classroom. It was Hermione and Riddle. The girl's face was red and she looked like as if she had been crying, while Tom, as always, looked impassive, as if nothing had happened.

"Where were you?" Harry asked when the girl came to them.

"Can I explain it later?" the witch whispered as she looked around at the other students that were now staring at her. Harry nodded, noticing that his friend didn't seem to be comfortable about talking about what had happened.

"So… What is the class about?" she asked them.

"_Relaxo,"_ Ron explained. "We're practicing in pairs."

"Miss Granger?" Hermione spun around and saw Merrythought approaching them.

"Mr. Riddle told me what happened, so you don't need to be worried. I won't take any points from your house." The witch smiled. "We are practicing the Relaxo spell in pairs… As everyone already has a partner, could you practice with Mr. Riddle?"

"Oh, of course, Professor."

The girl smiled uncomfortably before going in Tom's direction. He didn't seem to be happy with the fact that he had to work with her during that class, but she couldn't blame him… After all, she also didn't want to work with him either. The wizard didn't say anything when the witch stopped in front of him; he just raised his wand defiantly and kept his eyes fixed on Hermione's. The Gryffindor followed his actions, paying attention to every movement he did.

"_Relaxo!"_

The spell came out from her wand and rushed in Riddle's direction, but before it could hit him, a single movement of his wand made the spell vanish in mid air. Tom looked at her with a raised eyebrow and a smug smile.

_'Nonverbal spell…'_

Hermione saw the Slytherin wave his wand and, before she could do anything, felt some kind of invisible force pushing her back until she lost her balance and fell on the floor. Feeling her face blushing and cursing silently, Hermione got up.

"If you want things to be that way…" she whispered as she raised her wand. '_Relaxo!_'

Riddle, who was still smirking, widened his eyes when he finally noticed the spell rushing in his direction and, unable to divert it, was hit by Hermione's spell and ended up sprawled on the floor. The witch smirked while she watched Tom get up from the floor with a slight blush on his face. Some students stopped practicing to stare at the girl who had just 'defeated' Riddle, who had always been the best in the class when it came to duels.

At the other side of the classroom, Harry and Ron chuckled as they watched the scene.

"I never thought I would see this… You-Know-Who falling on his arse thanks to a spell shot by our Mione." The Boy-Who-Lived laughed.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Arithmancy was the only class that Hermione had without her friends, and maybe it was because of that that the class seemed to pass by very slowly… Or maybe it was the fact that Tom Riddle kept staring at her all the time in an almost scary way. Every time she glanced at him, his eyes were fixed on her and she felt as if he was trying to read her mind. When the teacher finally announced that the class had ended, Hermione took her books and rushed outside of the classroom.

"Hermione!" She heard Minerva McGonagall calling her. "What are you doing?"

"Going back to Gryffindor Tower…?"

"Oh… Don't you want to watch the Quidditch trials?" Her future Transfiguration teacher asked her. "Harry is going to try for Seeker."

"Merlin, I had forgotten about the trials." The girl laughed. "But alright, I'll be there."

Both of them went to the Quidditch pitch where all the other players were waiting for Minerva. When they got there, McGonagall joined the rest of the team while Hermione sat on the bleachers.

"Mione?" The witch smiled when she saw Ron approaching her.

"Ron! I thought you were taking the trials too…"

"No." The boy sat next to her and shrugged. "They already have a keeper, someone called Aramis Wood."

The trials went on normally. When the sun was starting to set, Charlus Potter ended the trials and announced that Harry would be the new Seeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and that another girl, Megaera Stauton, was a new chaser.

"You're a great player, Harry," Minerva said when they were walking back to their common room. "Who taught you how to play?"

"Er… My father," the boy lied. "And Ron and I always trained together."

"Your father must have been a great player too." Charlus smiled kindly.

"Yeah, he was… he played as a Chaser." Harry gave a sad smile to his grandfather when he and Ron started to climb up the stairs to the boy's dormitory. Hermione sat down in one of the couches and kept staring at the fire burning in the fireplace.

"I don't know if I already told you this." McGonagall sat down next to her. "But I loved the way you beat Riddle in Defense today."

"I must have surprised him." The witch laughed. "I bet that if he knew what I was going to do, he would've easily defended himself."

"Well, it doesn't matter… I enjoyed seeing Riddle sprawled on the floor with a surprised look on his face for once." She laughed loudly.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Riddle was pacing around the empty Slytherin common room with Avery, Lestrange and Malfoy just staring at him. The three Slytherins had learned that when Tom was in a bad mood the best thing to do was to be quiet… Never try to help him, just watch while the other boy nearly tore his hair off in rage.

"Who does she think she is!" Tom spat the words as he slammed his fist on a desk.

"My Lord?" Abraxas said hesitantly, taking a step forward. "We can make her pay…"

"Malfoy, you've already done enough for today," the Heir of Slytherin hissed. "Do one more thing and I swear that you'll have to stay in the Hospital Wing for a whole week."

The blonde gulped and took a step back, his eyes wide with fear. Tom stayed in silence for some time, just looking through the window to the dark interior of the lake.

"Did any of you discover something about the Mudblood and her friends?" he asked, shooting a cold glance at Avery. "Something _useful_."

"N-No, my Lord…" the three Slytherins answered.

"Try to find out something… I don't know how, but try to find out the truth about them."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N: **First of all, I'm sorry for staying one week without posting and then... post this crappy chapter ¬¬ I dind't like it, it felt rushed... I don't know XD

Oh, thanks Senko Ryu for pointing out some things in the fanfiction, and Ceralyn for telling me that I made a mistake when I wrote_ "The Portrait of Dorian Gray",_ it's actually _"The Picture of Dorian Gray"... _I'll fix it (:

Also, I'm starting to look for a beta reader here in :D So, this week I'll try to find one.

About this chapter:

**1-** I can't write duels D: I don't like the way I write them.

**2- "...while Hermione sat on the bleachers.": **is it right? I din't know what word I could use here... then I used the translator [but I don't really trust it D:]

**3- "...only watch as the other boy nearly tore his hair off with rage": **does this expressions exists in english? D: Again, I didn't know any other expression that could fill it's place ):

Beta read by **Shadow6116**.

That's it...

Hope you liked it (:

**Ari.**


	12. Why do we have to stay in the library?

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 12: Why do we have to stay in the library?**

.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Her-mi-own-neeeeeeee!"

"What's wrong, Ron?" the girl muttered, glaring at her friend, who was yawning dramatically.

"Why do we have to stay in the library?" he asked her. "We have two free periods and…"

"We're trying to find more information about the _Hor-…_ about _you-know-whats!_" Hermione whispered. "Why don't you try to find something useful in these books like me and Harry?"

The red haired boy rolled his eyes, but grabbed one of the books that were lying on the floor and then opened it, muttering something and started to read it. The three Gryffindors were sitting on the floor on an isolated corner of the library; after all, they didn't want to be caught reading books that were supposed to be in the Restricted Section or with another student. Hermione almost had to drag her friends to the library as they didn't seem to be interested in the idea of staying between lots of old books when they could have been enjoying a nice day outside.

"Excuse me…?"

The three of them looked up and saw a dark haired girl wearing a Slytherin uniform standing a few meters from them. Ron quickly closed his book and pressed it to his chest, trying to hide it from the girl. Harry didn't do anything except stare at her with a puzzled expression, while Hermione simply smiled at her.

"Can I help you?"

"Can you please pass me that book on the counter?" The Slytherin girl pointed at the counter against Hermione was leaning on. "It's right behind you."

"Of course." The Gryffindor got up from the floor and grabbed the book, handing it to the other girl. "Here you are_… The Simple Manual of Theoretical Defense_?"

"It's for a Defense Against the Dark Arts project," the Slytherin muttered. "You're Hermione Granger, right?"

"Er, yes."

"I heard Malfoy and Lestrange talking about you… By the way, I'm Eileen Prince, Captain of Hogwarts Gobstones team."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Eileen." Hermione smiled. "This is Harry Pevensie and Ronald Purkiss."

"Hi," Ron muttered while Harry simply waved.

"You're Gryffindor's new Seeker, aren't you?" The dark haired boy nodded. "Nice! I heard you're really good, but let's see if you can beat Slytherin in a match!"

"Ha! Of course Harry can beat Slytherin!" The Weasley laughed. "I bet two Galleons that Gryffindor will win the first game against your house."

"Are you sure?" Eileen gave a smug smirk. "Alright. Let's see who'll end up with those Galleons, alright?"

"Right." Ron answered as he watched the girl wave them good-bye before walking away, laughing quietly. "Prepare to lose your galleons!"

Hermione laughed when she saw her friend get so excited over the subject of Quidditch. Looking over to her side, she saw that Harry was still in silent, looking at the spot where Eileen had been standing a few moments ago.

"What's wrong, Harry?"

"That girl… She seemed familiar."

"Of course she did!" The witch smiled. "Remember when I researched the Half-Blood Prince? I told you I thought Eileen Prince was the said Prince."

"Wait a minute!" The grin vanished from Ron's face. "Are you telling me that Slytherin was Snape's mom?"

The girl nodded, seeing how the two boys glanceed at each other for a moment before bursting into laughter. Apparently, the fact that they had just met the mother of their hated Potion's teacher was funny.

"Alright, stop that."

"She doesn't look like Snape." Ron laughed. "I mean, can you see me gambling with Snape? I think that if I told him Gryffindor would beat Slytherin in a Quidditch match he'd curse me!"

"Or shoot a AK at you." Harry's voice had a serious tone and it was enough to make the relaxed atmosphere around them disappear.

"Alright." Hermione bent down to grab the books she had left on the floor. "Let's go. I think we did enough for today."

"Yes! No more sitting on the floor," Ron whispered, getting up and being followed by Harry. "We still have about forty minutes before Transfiguration starts, right?"

"Yes."

"Great, let's walk around the castle a bit, I mean… My legs are numb."

"Just before we go," Harry started speaking. "Mione, why did you and Riddle come in late for Defense class yesterday?"

"I thought you had forgotten about that." The witch said quietly, feeling her face blush.

"We did, Mione," said Harry, looking at her with a serious expression. "But we remembered it now. So, will you tell us what happened?"

Hermione took a deep breath before telling them everything that had happened in the previous day. She told them how Avery and Malfoy had started to duel with her in the middle of the corridor, how she got hit by the spell from one of them and how Riddle had appeared out of nowhere and stopped their fight.

"It doesn't explain why you two were so late for the class," Ron said while stretching his arms and yawning.

"Alright, alright! Avery hit me with a Densaugeo," she told them, annoyed. "The spell that makes your teeth grow… Yes, Ron, it's the same spell that Draco shot at me in our fourth year… So, the spell hit me and it was then that Riddle showed up."

"And what did he do?"

"He took some points from Slytherin and said that he was going to take me to the Hospital Wing but he fixed my teeth by himself instead," the witch said. "And that's what happened."

The two boys stayed in silence, just staring at their friend as if she had told them something crazy.

"Riddle helped you?" Harry asked skeptically. "Why?"

"I don't know." Hermione shrugged, deciding that it was better not to tell her friends about the incident at the orphanage. She was sure that Harry and Ron would have told her to leave the Slytherin with a broken nose until his death day or something like that… So, it was better to keep her mouth shut about what had happened.

"Weird… I mean, You-Know-Who helping a Muggle-born?" Ron whispered. "I can see him making your teeth even bigger than they should have been… But fixing them? Never!"

"I also expected him to do that, Ron," the girl spoke. "But I'm sure he just helped me to keep up with his reputation as 'Hogwarts' perfect student.'"

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"_Translunda_." Hermione saw the goblet in front of her dissolve into water and run down her table. "_Firmus_."

"Very good, Ms. Granger."

The girl raised her head to see Professor Dumbledore standing next to her table, watching as the water formed into a goblet again. The wizard smiled, which made the witch feel an odd sadness taking over her body… It was sad to think that such a gentle teacher would be dead once they went back to the future.

"Thank you, Professor Dumbledore."

"Alright," Albus called his students' attention. "The class is over, I just want to say one last thing before you leave to enjoy the rest of your afternoon: those who are interested in studying how to become an Animagus, please, stay for a while to speak with me."

The students nodded and started to pack their things. Hermione looked around and saw Harry and Ron standing behind her, looking at her in a strange way, as if they were waiting for the girl to do something.

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes, Mione."

"Harry's right. Dumbledore can help us with the…" Ron suddenly stopped talking when he saw Tom Riddle walk by them. When the Slytherin was far enough from them, the red haired boy whispered. "With the Time-Turner! After all, we can't wait for it to fix itself."

The Gryffindor nodded before looking back at the teacher who was now talking with Minerva McGonagall. The Chaser seemed very excited about the idea of having a chance to become an Animagus. When their conversation finally ended, Minerva walked by them with a huge grin on her face and waved them good-bye before leaving the class room.

"Do you wish to speak with me?"

"Er, yes, but it's not about becoming an Animagus," Hermione spoke, approaching the older wizard.

"Very well, go ahead."

"Well, it's a little bit complicated… I don't know how to explain…"

"We came from the future!" the boy with glasses shortened the whole complicated story that he knew his friend would tell. "We had a Time-Turner, but it broke and we ended up here."

The witch stared at her friend, not believing how abruptly he had told their teacher about their real situation. It's not right to throw such information over someone's face so quickly. But Dumbledore didn't seem to be shocked; on the contrary, he seemed satisfied about hearing that. His blue eye sparkled even more while he stared at the trio in silence.

"Professor…?"

"I knew there was something different with the three of you," the wizard whispered. "I didn't know what it was; maybe it was the way you behaved, but I have noticed it since the first time I saw you… And my suspicion that you weren't from France and that this attack from Grindelwald had never happened grew each day that passed… But, aside from that, you seem to know a war very well."

"We lived in a war, Professor," said Harry.

"I understand." Dumbledore looked at the girl. "Ms. Granger, do you have your Time-Turner?"

"Yes." Hermione took the golden chain that was around her neck out and held it out to the teacher.

Albus held the object, raising it to eye level to have a better look at the contorted, delicate metal structure. A soft worried expression crossed the older man's face while he touched the broken glass from the tiny hour-glass with the tip of his finger.

"It's complicated, indeed. You must know how a Time-Turner works, don't you, Ms. Granger?"

"Yes." The girl sighed. "We can only go back to our time using the Time-Turner thatbrought us here. But, sir, it's broken! We can't use it… And, from what I heard, it's very difficult to fix a time-turner."

"Correct, Ms Granger. Time-Turners are extremely delicate objects and, once broken, it is very difficult to fix one, but not impossible." Dumbledore looked at the trio. "I can find someone to fix it for you, but I'm afraid it will take some time for the job to be done. But now, tell me: which year are you from?"

"1997," Harry answered.

"Fifty three years in the future." The wizard smiled softly. "Don't tell me anything more, you know the laws of time traveling and I think you should follow them strictly."

"Right."

"Well, you can go now." The teacher smiled and put the time-turner into one of the pockets of his purple robes. "I'll let you know once it's fixed, but don't think it'll happen too soon."

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione rolled in her bed, holding the blanket tightly around her body while she opened her eyes and looked at the red curtains around her bed. Eighteen years. She was turning eighteen today. She was turning eighteen before her parents were even born. Thirty five years before she was born.

"That's to show you that nothing is impossible in this mad world of ours," the girl muttered to herself while she sat up on the bed.

She got up and went to her wardrobe, taking her uniform and wearing it; after all, it was just another normal day of classes. She looked at herself in the mirror and laughed. She hadn't changed too much since she had arrived at Hogwarts for the first time. She was still short and still had terribly bushy brown hair… The only thing that had really changed was her teeth, which were smaller since her fourth year, when she had first been hit by the Densaugeo spell. She smiled at her reflection, seeing how uniform her teeth were now, not extravagant as they were when she was younger. Looking away from her face, the girl now paid attention to the clothes she was wearing. It was a lot like the uniform she used to wear back in the future ,with only a few peculiarities from the 1940s. The skirt was made of a grey fabric which went until a little lower than her knees, and its waist was higher than usual. Some girls wore a grey jacket under their cloaks, just like most of the boys did, but she preferred not to wear it.

Shaking her head and putting her cloak, the girl left the dormitory and went downstairs, but didn't find Harry and Ron n the common room.

'They must be down at the Great Hall already.'

She tried to find Charlus and Minerva but, after seeing that they weren't around, decided to go to the Great Hall. She put her bag on her shoulder and left the common room. Once she got to the Hall, it didn't take too long for her to find her friends at the Gryffindor table.

"Good morning," the girl said when she sat down next to them.

"Good morning, Mione." Ron smiled, just like Harry, before putting his arm around the witch's shoulders. "Happy birthday!"

"Oh, Ron, thank you." Hermione laughed.

"It's your birthday?" Minerva, who was near them, asked, faking an angry tone. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"Leave it, Minnie." Charlus laughed when he saw his friend blush after being called by her nickname. "Hey, Hermione, happy birthday."

"Yeah," their future Transfiguration teacher smiled. "Happy birthday."

"Thank you." Hermione felt her face blushing. "Really, thank you so much."

"You're welcome. Oh, wait!" Minerva stretched her arm and grabbed a cupcake that was in one of the trays on the table, before taking a hair clip from her tight hair bun.

"What are you doing?" Charlus asked as he watched his friend taking her wand out of her cloak and pointing it at the hair clip.

"A small gift for Hermione… _Candelaverto_." As soon as the Gryffindor whispered the spell, the hair clip she was holding turned into a small red and golden candle. "_Incendium_." A small flame appeared on it and McGonagall put the candle on the cupcake she had taken from the tray before handing it to Hermione. "Make a wish."

The Gryffindor smiled and took the cupcake, feeling her eyes welling up with tears. She looked at her friends before looking at the cake in her hands.

'I wish everything ends well.'

She blew the candle out, trying to believe that her wish really was going to come true.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Okay, this chapter is not really nice, it was only to show the trio telling Dumbledore the truth...

Oh, I was going to post it yesterday but I was watching the MTV's Movie Awards and could't concentrate D: Have you guys watched it? For me, it was frustrating... All the Harry Potter's fanclubs that I know were voting like mad for Harry Potter/Daniel/Emma/Tom and, in the end, only Tom Felton won an Award ): [And New Moon won as Best movie of the year D:] ... Well, but there was Deathly Hallows' trailer :D It was amazing... When it ended, I was trembling and almost crying O_O [srsly, I was scared with myself, I never thought I would react like this to a trailer... Imagine how I will react when I finally watch the movie XD], my sister couldn't stand me screaming at her side "OMG! Have you seen it! Harry and Ginny's kiss! And Voldemort! The dragon! Harry and Ron fighting! Ohhh *dies*"... But, just after the ending of the trailer, the couple who was commenting the MMA on MTV Brazil started talking nonsense about Harry Potter O_O... Accourding to them "The trailer had nothing new, it was the same thing as the other movies... Too fantasious, **too english**..." [Hey guys from MTV Brazil, HP is an english book... it's obvious it would be "too english" o_o']...But okay! XD I enjoyed the trailer... [god, I talked so much nonsense here D:]

Beta read by **Shadow6116**.

Anyway, hope you like it (:

Thanks everyone who left reviews on the last chapter *-*

**Ari.**


	13. Head Girl

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 13: Head Girl**

.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Did you hear it? Penelope Lynch left the school today."

"Where did you hear that, Charlus?", asked Minerva, finally looking up from the book that she had opened on the table.

"Everyone is talking about that. Her parents were killed by Grindelwald's followers because they were hiding refugees from Germany", the boy explained and then flashed a quick glance in Hermione's direction, "It's the same thing that happened to you, right?"

Minerva slapped her friends arm, obviously disapproving his question.

"It's exactly the same thing", the other girl smiled sadly. "It's really sad to hear that more students of Hogwarts are going through the same thing."

Charlus opened his mouth to say something but quickly changed his mind when he saw Tom Riddle approaching them. The Potter's smile dropped and his expression changed into a mask of disapproval. The Slytherin boy didn't seem to notice that – or was he just ignoring it? – and simply stared at them for some time before turning to Hermione.

"Ms. Granger, professor Dippet wishes to speak with you." The girl nodded before getting up and making her way to the Great Hall's door.

"I think I can find the way to the headmaster's office on my own, Riddle.", said Hermione, noticing that the boy was following her.

"That's amazing, Ms. Granger, but I think you don't know the password to Dippet's office." The young man gave her a tiny smile. "And, anyway, I was called there too."

The witch sighed and kept walking, ignoring Riddle who still had that stupid sarcastic smile playing on his lips. When they finally arrived at the griffin who kept the entrance of the headmaster's office, Tom said the password – _"Monkshood"… _When Hermione heard the password, she decided that she missed the ones that Dumbledore used. _"Lemondrops"_ or _"Chocolate-frogs"_ were much nicer than _"Monkshood"_ – and they went up to the office.

When they entered the room, the girl saw Dippet sitting behind his desk, talking with Dumbledore and Slughorn who were standing in front of him. When the old headmaster noticed that the two students had just entered the office, he raised his hand, asking for silence.

"Come closer, please.", the wizard smiled, watching them two approach his desk, "Very well. Ms. Granger, I believe you heard about Ms. Lynch, am I right?"

"Yes, sir."

"Did you know that she was Head Girl, Ms. Granger?" The girl shook her head, "She and Mr. Riddle were our Head Girl and Head Boy of this year. Well, I called you here to ask you if you would accept taking Ms. Lynch's place as Head Girl."

"What? Me? But… There are other students that have been here far than I!", Hermione whispered, blushing. "I mean, I just entered Hogwarts this is year…"

"And you already showed yourself to be an excellent student!" Slughorn smiled at her. "You would be a perfect Head Girl."

"Why don't you ask McGonagall to take Lynch's place? I thought she would be Head Girl this year.", Tom muttered.

"Ms. McGonagall already said that she is happy being only a Prefect", Dumbledore finally spoke, "She thinks that it would take too much of her time if she became Head Girl."

Hermione saw Riddle's jaw clenching but ignored it. She let a small smile take place on her lips… The girl always wanted to be Head Girl and now the opportunity was just in front of her! The only thing that she needed to was to say "Yes"… But, this would mean that she would be interfering in the past, just like Harry did when he joined the Quidditch team! Hadn't Dumbledore noticed that yet?

"Alright.", she whispered, throwing away her own plan of 'not doing anything important in the past'.

"Great! Everything is right now.", Dippet smiled, "I hope you and Mr. Riddle get along well."

"Of course that we will, headmaster.", Riddle's voice was low and dangerous when he put a hand on Hermione's shoulder.

"Here, Ms. Granger.", Dumbledore extended his hand and gave her a silver badge with tiny red and gold letters forming the words '_Head Girl'._ "From now on you'll sleep in a separated dormitory which you'll share with Mr. Riddle. You may go now."

The girl smiled at the teachers before leaving the office right after Tom. Hermione didn't know if she should laugh or cry… If study with Voldemort was already discomforting, imagine having to sleep in the same dormitory as him!

"The dormitory is on the second floor, behind Morgana's portrait." The young man didn't bother to look at her when he was speaking. "We just changed the password, it's '_Capita' _now."

"Alright, I'll just get my trunk at Gryffindor's tower and…"

"They already took your stuff to our dormitory."

"Alright," the witch sighed, "So, I'll just let my friends know that I won't be going back to our Common Room tonight… And there is no need for you to follow me now, Riddle, I assure you that I won't get lost while getting back to the dormitory."

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Minerva and Charlus had already finished their dinner and left when Hermione finally got to the Great Hall but Harry was still there, waiting for Ron to finish eating. The girl looked behind to make sure that Riddle had stopped following her before approaching her friends.

"_Fere fere yfou_?", the red haired wizard asked.

"For Merlin's sake, Ron, don't speak with food in your mouth!" The witch gave him a disgusted look. "I couldn't understand a thing that you said!"

"Where were you?", Weasley said after swallowing the rest of his potatoes.

"Dippet wanted to see me."

"Why?" This time it was Harry who spoke after noticing that his friend seemed worried and happy about something.

"You know that girl whose parents were killed? She was Head Girl but, as she left Hogwarts, professor Dippet asked me to take her place!" She smiled shyly and pointed at the badge that was now glinting on her uniform.

"Hermione! This is great!", the two boys laughed and hugged her.

"This explains why you look so happy.", the dark haired wizard smiled, "But you look kinda worried…"

"Well, it's just because I'll have to move to the Head's dormitory."

"But this is nice!", said Ron, "You can have a whole dormitory to yourself!"

"Well, it's not just for me, I have to share it with the Head Boy…"

"And?"

"Ahm… I have to share the dormitory with the Head Boy, who happens to be Tom Riddle." she whispered.

It didn't take too much time for the smiles on her friends faces disappear. The witch had known that they would react that way that was why she wasn't surprised by their suddenly change of mood.

"You are going to sleep in the same place as Riddle?", Harry asked.

"Actually, Harry, there are two separated rooms..."

"No way! You can't sleep near him!", Weasley almost screamed.

"And what do you want me to do, Ron? Tell Dippet that I don't want to stay close to Riddle because I'm scared of him?", the witch asked in an irritated voice.

"I don't know! But it's dangerous for you to stay too close to him!" Her friend stopped talking for a moment before opening his mouth again, "I think that Dumbledore will let you stay in the Gryffindor's tower if you tell him that you are scared of Riddle…"

"Ronald! I'm not scared of him!", she interrupted him, trying to convince herself that what she was saying was the truth, "And I can defend myself if he tries to do something!"

"Mione!"

"I'm going to my dormitory; I have to organize my room. G'night."

And, saying that, the young witch got up and walked away, leaving behind her friends with a confused expression on their faces.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Tom heard the door of the room next door slam and rolled his eyes, asking himself if the Granger girl would be as insufferable as his former roommate. It wasn't just once that the boy couldn't sleep because Lynch would keep slamming her room's door of chatting with her friends that she used to take to the dormitory.

He got up from his bed and exited his room. The boy stood in front of Hermione's door and knocked it lightly. After a few minutes, Granger opened the door and shot him an annoyed look. Nothing new, she always looked at him in that way.

"What do you want, Riddle?"

"I just wanted to say that I hope you'll enjoy the time that you'll be staying in this dormitory." A fake smiled appeared on his lips. "And I hope you'll enjoy your job as Head Girl."

"I'm sure I'll love it." She spat the words in his face and tried to close the door but was stopped by Tom's hand that held the doorknob with force. "What's it now?"

"You couldn't be a little gentler, could you, Granger?"

Ah, how he enjoyed seeing the others looking at him in that way! He loved when they tried to look brave in front of him but they always lost that posture when he provoked them… He liked to do that with girls and Gryffindors the most, and Hermione Granger was those two things.

"I'm sorry, Riddle, but my gentleness is not wasted to people like you." The witch noticed that Tom had removed his hand from the doorknob and didn't waste time to shut the door.

"Good night to you too, Granger!"

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Again, it took a lot of time for me to post ): Since last week I'm almost going mad thanks to school... In 13th of June I had my first vestibular exam [a test that we have to do to enter university here, it's horrible D: It was 60 questions about math, chemistry, physics, literature, portuguese, geography, history and one essay... isn't is a great birthday present? Well, it was my birthday present XD At least I got 51 questions right and now I'm waiting for the result of the test]. Yesterday I had another vestibular, this time in another university and next sunday I have another one but this one is from my school, only to train... So, yeah, I'm just studying for those tests x_x' But here is the new chapter :D [haha, today I'm inspired to post fanfictions... I re-wrote a whole chapter of Riddle's during Brazil's game on the World Cup today, I was the only one of my family that wasn't really paying attention to the game x_x]

**1- Capita:** it means "heads" or "leaders" in latin. [in portuguese, "chapter" is "Capítulo"... accourding to my teacher: "head of the text" or something like that *useless information*]

**2- The Head's dormitory: **I don't know if Head Boy and Head Girl have a separated dormitories but I already read so many fanfictions in which they have that I ended up doing it in Riddle's x_x.

**3- Quotation marks:** I started using them now... It's weird, you know? All the books in portuguese aren't written with quotation marks, but with the trace [ - ]. I'm used to read books in English but I never tried to write with the marks XD But okay, I'll try to keep using them from now on.

**4- Penelope Lynch:** Penelope = from Penelope Clearwater, Percy's girlfriend in the HP's series / Lynch = from Evanna Lynch.

I forgot to post it here before... **http : / / i661 . photobucket . com / albums / uu339 / aribh1306 / riddlescover _ aribh13 . jpg **It's a cover for this fanfiction that I did last year (: [*more useless information* I have a t-shirt with this picture of Tom and Hermione in it XD]

And the chapter's drawing: **http : / / arileli . deviantart . com / gallery / # / d2brnng **It's one of my favorites drawings of the whole story :D

Thanks a lot, M3DUSA, for correcting this chapter *-*

Oh, and I've been wanting to ask you something [and I always forget x_x]... Do you guys have a profile on Livejournal or Twitter? (: I don't know why but I like to talk with my readers x_x I made a lot of friends on the other website where I posted Riddle's in portuguese... XD

Well, that's it (:

Hope you enjoyed it.  
Reviews are highly appreciated :D

.

**Ari.**


	14. The Quidditch Match

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 14: The Quidditch Match**

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******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

When winter arrived, the first Quidditch games came with it. The first match would be the classic of Gryffindor against Slytherin, and that was enough to leave all the students excited, especially the players of both houses that would play.

"Will you calm down, please?"

"Mione, it is Harry's first game and it's Gryffindor's first game of the year!", said Minerva, glaring at her friend. "I think we have the right to be nervous!"

Hermione laughed at her friends' tenseness. Ron, even though he wasn't in the team, appeared to be more anxious than the players. The red haired boy wouldn't stop asking Harry and Charlus if they remembered everything that they needed to do during the game and kept giving them tips on how they could defeat the Slytherins.

"Did you finish eating already?"

The two Potters nodded when they heard Ron's question. "Good! Let's go to the Quidditch pitch! Are you coming, Mione?"

"You can go, I'll go in a few minutes, alright?"

The boy agreed and walked away, almost dragging Harry, Charlus and Minerva with him. Hermione laughed, watching her friends exiting the Great Hall, before finishing eating her breakfast.

"Good morning, Ms. Granger."

_That's exactly what I needed to cheer up my morning,_ the girl thought when she recognized the calm and deep voice that was calling her.

"'Morning, Mr. Riddle.", the girl spoke, turning around to look at the boy.

"Did your friends already go to the pitch?" he asked. She noticed that the so familiar fake smile was forming on his lips.

"Yes."

"So… I believe you must be going there too," Tom whispered, "May I accompany you on your way to the pitch?"

The witch opened her mouth to answer a good "NO" right in the Slytherin's face but before she could say anything, she saw professor Slughorn walking in their direction, smiling and waving his hand enthusiastically.

"Tom! Ms. Granger, good morning,"

The wizard encircled their shoulders with his arms.

"How are Hogwarts' Head Girl and Head Boy doing?"

"Good morning, professor", Riddle muttered.

"You two are going to watch the game, right? I hope Slytherin wins, nothing against your house, Ms. Granger, Gryffindor has excellent players but Slytherin is my house!" The man laughed loudly, "How about you two watch the game in the teacher's box? The view in there is great!"

Before the two students could say anything, Slughorn was already leading them out of the castle and in the direction of the Quidditch pitch. During the walk, the teacher wouldn't stop talking about Hogwarts' teams and which had the higher possibility of winning the Quidditch Cup that year. Hermione noticed that Riddle seemed to be even more uninterested in the conversation than her.

When they finally arrived at the pitch, it didn't take the bleachers too much time to become full of students that were looking forward to the classical match of the green and red houses. The girl smiled, noticing that it didn't matter if they were in 1997 or in 1944, Quidditch seemed to be something that had the power to cheer up every wizard or witch she knew.

"Good morning, ladies and gentleman!", the broadcaster, a blonde Hufflepuff boy whose cheeks were blushed due to the cold, said, "Today is a beautiful… Alright, maybe not so beautiful… Day for a Quidditch match! And today we'll have a classic: GRYFFINDOR VERSUS SLYTHERIN.

The players of both teams finally appeared in the sky. The student's noise who were watching was terribly loud when the blurred figures of the Gryffindors and Slytherins zoomed around the pitch. Hermione clapped her hands when she caught sight of Harry among the rest of the red and golden team and noticed that Riddle, who was standing next to her, kept staring at the players with a serious look on his face.

"The teams are in their positions.", the Hufflepuff boy said when all the players were floating in the middle of the pitch, "The Quaffle is released… AND THE GAME BEGINS!"

The players turned into red and green blurs on the sky. The girl could see McGonagall stealing the Quaffle from a Slytherin boy and throwing it to Charlus who passed it to another Gryffindor chaser. Harry was hovering above the others with his eyes narrowed behind his glasses while he tried to find the Golden Snitch.

"Everyone killing themselves over a ball", she heard Riddle's low voice speaking and this time he wasn't even trying to hide his displeasure, "Instead of doing something useful… What a great waste of time."

"You wanted to come, didn't you, Riddle?"

The girl watched the boy who was near her. Tom had his arms crossed over his chest and his face was lowered, almost hiding into the green and silver Slytherin scarf that he was wearing, as he tried to protect himself from the cold weather, "So stop complaining."

"A good Head Boy shall be present in every school event."

Hermione rolled her eyes as she heard the Slytherin's answer before turning around and starting to watch the game again. The rest of the game was as normal as a Quidditch game can be. The students at the bleachers wouldn't stop screaming, cheering for the team that they supported while the players almost killed themselves in order to win the match. During the whole time, the expression of boredom didn't leave Riddle's face, while Hermione kept cheering for Gryffindor's team enthusiastically.

After almost one hour, Harry finally spotted the Snitch. The boy dived in the air, attracting the Slytherin Seeker's attention, who followed him immediately. When they were just a few meters from the bleachers, the Gryffindor changed his direction so quickly that the other Seeker didn't have the time to do the same and almost hit a group of Ravenclaws who was watching the game. When he saw that no one was following him anymore, Harry didn't waste time to go after the tiny golden ball.

"And… PEVENSIE GOT THE SNITCH!", the Hufflepuff broadcaster screamed and laughed. "GRYFFINDOR WINS WITH 200 POINTS!"

Screams and applauses were heard from the Gryffindor's students. Professor Dumbledore got up and started clapping his hands calmly, smiling gently at the team who was hovering above the pitch. Hermione looked around and noticed that Riddle was nowhere near her.

"He already left…"

"I can't believe!", she heard Slughorn whimper behind her, "We were almost winning! Ms. Granger, I must admit that this friend of yours is a great Seeker, one of the best I've ever seen."

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The party in celebration of the Gryffindor's victory cheered up the red and golden Common Room that night. The students didn't seem to be tired of speaking about how great the match had been, how Gryffindor turned around the game and how Harry was a great Seeker… Even professor Dumbledore showed up in the Common Room to congratulate the team for their performance at the pitch.

"You almost made Black hit those Ravenclaws!"

McGonagall seemed to be the most excited player.

"Harry has always been good in puzzling the opposite Seeker", laughed Ron loudly, "Hasn't he, Mione?"

"Yes," the girl smiled to her friends and looked at her watch, noticing that it was almost time for the curfew. "Oh, I think it's better for me to get going. Bye, Ron, Harry…"

"Now? But it's early!" The dark haired boy faked a sad expression that only made his friend laugh.

"No, Harry, it's not early", the girl smiled, "I see you tomorrow and, again, congratulations for the victory!"

"'Night, Mione!" The two boys waved her goodbye.

The witch exited the Common Room through the Fat Lady's portrait and walked down the empty corridors until she got to the Head's dormitory. Her footsteps echoed in the empty dark room as she entered it and took a look around, noticing that Riddle must had already gone to bed as there was no sign of him in the room and his bedroom's door was already closed.

"It's better this way. I won't have to stand his annoying conversation," Hermione thought as she walked straight to her bedroom and started getting ready to sleep.

She laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling. The fact that she was sleeping in the same dormitory as Riddle wasn't as bad as she had thought it would be. It was uncomfortable, of course, but she imagined it would be much worse. The girl had already done some things to prevent the Slytherin boy from harming her in any way… She always locked her door and set some alarm spells in her room before going to sleep. If Riddle tried to get in there, she would immediately know. Sleeping with her wand near herself was another thing that had turned into a habit for her. If anything happened, she would only have to stretch out her arm and get what she needed to defend herself.

But, to Hermione's surprise, it seemed as if her preventions were unnecessary. The Head Boy preferred to ignore her most of the time, only talking to her when it was extremely necessary or, the girl had noticed, when he felt the need to annoy her, but, aside from the annoying comments, the cold glares and the tons of sarcasm that he threw at her, Riddle hadn't done anything bad yet.

"It doesn't matter, Hermione, he may be hiding his true intentions," the girl thought while she turned in her bed, wrapping the blankets tightly around her body, "Don't let your guard down, you know what he is capable of."

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Tom rubbed his face with his hand, trying to get rid of the tiredness that insisted in make his vision blur while he tried to read. The boy raised his head when he heard the door next to his room being shut softly making him know that his roommate had come back from that mess the Gryffindors called a party.

"As if there was something to celebrate," the wizard whispered to himself, "A waste of time called Quidditch…"

Closing his book and leaving it on the table next to his bed, Riddle turned off the lights of the room with a wave of his wand and laid down on the bed, wrapping the dark green blankets around himself and burying his face into the pillow. No one knew that, of course, but one of the things that Tom Riddle enjoyed the most was that peace that he felt before drifting into sleep.

After living years in that old orphanage at London, the fact that he could sleep in a comfortable pillow and a warm bed was a treasure to him, the boy that couldn't count how many times he hadn't been able to sleep thanks to the cold that the thin and old blankets from the orphanage couldn't get rid of. That place was terribly cold during winter; it was almost like sleeping outside in the snow. To stay in bed during the whole day, wrapped in a blanket with his hands and feet freezing, cheeks blushed and whole body trembling from the cold was something that had happened every year to Tom in Wool's Orphanage before he had come to Hogwarts.

The young man closed his eyes and buried his face even more in the soft pillow, trying to shut his mind from those memories.

"You are at Hogwarts now," he whispered but the sound of his voice was barely audible, "You belong here."

It didn't take much time to the Slytherin to fall asleep, still muttering to himself his little mantra in a soft, low voice.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Aeh, I finally posted a new chapter! So, as I said before, this chapter came out late because of school [I'm still waiting to see if I'll be able to register myself in university], of my trip [I'm still in the US] and because I find it really difficult to write a Quidditch match scene XD When I wrote it in portuguese it was already complicated... When I was translating it I kept reading the Quidditch World Cup scene in GoF to have an idea of how to write a good Quidditch scene XD [and at the same time I was watching the World Cup match of Brazil vs. Holland...].

Oh! About the Wizarding World of Harry Potter... It's so beautiful *-* I cried like an idiot when I first entered the park XD I've been dreaming about that place since I was 6/7 years old... So, yeah, it was my childhood dream coming true :D I posted some photos of the WWoHP at my livejournal, if anyone want to take a look at it: **http : / aribh . livejournal . com / 23761 . html # cutid1**

**About this chapter...**

**1- Tom and Quidditch: **I put a little bit of myself in Tom... I'm not the biggest fan of soccer,you see, and I live in the "country of the soccer" ¬¬ But, really? I hate it x_x The only excepion is the World Cup, that I enjoy watching, but aside from that... I hate soccer x_x and I see Tom being like that when it comes to Quidditch XD He's always thinking that people are wasting their time watching Quidditch games instead of doing something useful [well, I thought the same thing this year sometimes XD We didn't had classes on the days that Brazil played on the World Cup x_x srsly, we don't have breaks on holidays such as Independence Day [ok, I think I won't have classes on Independence Day but it'll only happens because it'll be on my 'one-week-vacation' x_x] and some religious holidays but we don't have classes on the day Brazil plays on the World Cup? x_x

**2- Hermione's preventions:** I don't think Mione would simply sleep in a room next to Lord Voldemort and not put any spell in her room for her safety XD

**3- Tom's life at the orphanage: **that part wasn't in the original chapter in portuguese... I like to imagine how Tom's life was before Hogwarts, and I think that living in that orphanage must have been horrible for him. I don't know, I always thought of Tom's orphanage as a place that would contrast against Hogwarts. So, yeah, I think that when he first got to Hogwarts, he mst have thought that the castle was some kind of paradise... It was warm, it had a good place where he could sleep, good food, etc... It was the opposite of Wool's Orphanage.

**4- Tom's behavior towards Hermione:** I imagine Tom as a quiet boy. He doesn't speak too much [unless when he gets excited with his speach, when it happens, he won't stop talking so early... we can see it with Voldemort, right? The guy likes monologues D:], he sometimes seems to be almost shy... That's why he doesn't annoy Hermione so much as Draco Malfoy does in the books, only [as Hermione said] when he feels the need to do it because he wants to amuse himself or because he wants to scare her [as we saw in The Slug Club chapter, where he tried to scare Mione with all that speech about how Slytherins didn't want a mudblood like her around them... well, it didn't really work with Mione but ok].

Oh, yeah, this chapter's drawing... ** http : / arileli . deviantart . com / gallery / # / d2bslga** [I really love this drawing 3 It was fun to draw Minerva McGonagall in her youth XD]

**Edit:** I forgot to say one thing x_x... I made a "trailer" for this fanfiction :D **http : / www . youtube . com / watch?v=0dh4WTjJP14** [I love to play around the Movie Maker and Sony Vegas and sometimes I end up making those trailers x_x]

Again, thanks, M3DUSA, for correcting this chapter (:

.

Ahm, that's it... Tell me what did you think about this chapter :D

;**

**Ari.**


	15. A little friend

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 15: A little friend**

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******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The weather was cold and snowy but that wasn't enough to restrain the students from Hogwarts from spending their weekend at Hogsmead. The village was full of young witches and wizards who were enjoying the last weekend before the Holidays, buying gifts for their relatives and friends. Hermione had finally managed to get Harry and Ron away from the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team and now the trio was sitting at a table in the middle of the Three Broomsticks, drinking Butterbeerand talking.

"The winter break is almost there," Ron smiled while taking a sip of his drink, "Thanks Merlin!"

"Oh, Ron, don't complain about school," Hermione said, putting her glass of Butterbeer down on the table, "It's not as if you were studying all the time..."

"Yeah, I don't really see why we have to kill ourselves studying this year... I mean, the NEWTs that we are going to take here at 1944 won't be of any use at the future," the red haired wizard muttered.

"Yes, but we are pretending to be normal students of 1944, do you remember that, Ron?"

The girl rolled her eyes.

"She's right," Harry, who had stayed in silence until now, spoke, "Hey, Mione, I was thinking... Should we do something about the horc-"

"Harry! Not in here!" She pointed to a group of Slytherins that was sitting near them. They could see Avery, Lestrange and Malfoy among the group of students, "Let's go outside."

The trio got up and exited the pub, walking right into the cold winter's wind that was blowing on Hogsmead's streets. Hermione guided them to a more isolated corner of the village, where there was no student who could overhear their conversation.

"Okay, Harry, go on," the girl said as she tightened her scarf around her neck.

"Do you think we should go after the horcruxes and destroy them while we are in the past?" the young wizard asked her.

"Harry, we can't do this," the girl sighed, "As much as I wanted to go after those things and destroy them as quick as possible, we can't change things in the past..."

"We can't destroy them," Ron whispered, "But we can try do discover where they are in the future! It'll save much time when we go back to the future and start to look for them."

"Ron is right! Harry, what do we know about Voldemort's horcruxes?"

"He split his soul in seven parts, this makes six horcruxes," the dark haired boy spoke, "His diary, Marvolo's ring, Hufflepuff's cup, Nagini, Slytherin's locket and something from Ravenclaw... By now he has already created two of them: the diary by killing Moaning Myrtle, and the ring..."

"By killing his father," Hermione shuddered, "That's horrible! How can someone kill his own father?"

"Hermione, he is Lord Voldemort, killing his father must have been fun to him!"

"Okay, we can try to discover where the real locket is and what the object from Ravenclaw is that he used to make a horcrux," the witch said.

"Do you know any magical object that might have belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw?" Ron asked.

"I have no idea, Ron, but I'll search for something in the library and ask Minerva if she knows anything about that." Hermione answered.

"Until we find that out, we can start thinking about the other horcruxes," Harry said, "Does anyone have an idea of where Hufflepuff's cup or Slytherin's locket might be in the future?"

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Tom had finally managed to get away from Abraxas, Canopus and Alphard and was now walking through the almost empty streets of Hogsmead. The young wizard preferred much more to stay alone than having to out up with his friends talking about Quidditch and girls all the time.

Riddle stopped walking when he saw the mudblood Granger and her friends standing across the streets. The boy narrowed his eyes as he tried to guess what the trio was talking about... The way the three Gryffindors were behaving was odd, after all, why did they seem to be so worried about not being listened by anyone?

Tom shook his head as he turned around, noticing that he was standing right in front an animal's shop. He looked at the owls and cats that were being showed in the store. He was one of the few students of Hogwarts who didn't have a pet... When he first entered the school, the boy wished he had an owl, a cat or even a toad but as the years passed he began to think that a pet would be a waste of time. Why would he need an owl when he had no one to send letters to? And which use would a cat have? It would only serve to leave his clothes full of cat hair... And a toad? Was there something more useless than a toad?

"_Hellooo..._ ," a low Voice hissed.

Looking down to see who was talking to him, Tom saw a snake inside a glass in the store, staring at him with its small dark eyes. The serpent wasn't so big and the boy wondered if it was an adult or not.

_"Hi."  
_  
The snake raised itself against the glass, dark eyes still locked on the boy's blue ones. A tiny smile took place on Riddle's lips as he decided to enter the store.

"Oh, hello, my dear," the witch who worked there smiled at him, "How can I help you?"

"That snake," he pointed at the animal, "How much does it cost?"

"You want it?" the woman laughed nervously, shooting a quick glance at the snake's direction, "Then you don't have to pay for it, just… be careful."

The boy nodded as he watched the witch approach the snake's glass and try to grab it. As she did so, the serpent opened its mouth, exposing her long fangs, and hissed at her.

"Do you really want it?"

"Yes," the boy answered as he approached the snake and gently took it in his hands, "Is it male or female?"

"Female," the witch smiled, "She is one year old… You see, she got here when she was just a baby but no one ever wanted her."

Riddle smiled at the woman one more time before exiting the shop with the serpent entwined in his arm. When he was finally outside, the young wizard untwined the animal from himself and took a good look at it.

_"You're beautiful, do you know that?"_ Tom whispered as he stroked the snake's back, carefully examining its dark spotted skin, _"You won't need to live in that glass anymore…"_

_"Thanksss,"_ the serpent's tongue darted out her mouth for a moment while she spoke.

_"You're welcome,"_ Tom smiled, "_Do you have a name?" _She shook her head, _"When we go back to the castle, we'll find a good name for you… I'll put you in my bag now, alright?"_

As the snake didn't seem to care, Riddle opened the bag that he had been carrying with him and put her inside. After that, he decided to go to the Three Broomsticks to let his companions know that he would be going to the castle earlier. On his way to the pub, the wizard saw Granger and her friends again and, one more time, he caught himself wondering about their conversation. Sighing softly, the boy turned away and, just when he did that, a red lighting rushed right next to him and hit the snow that covered the spot where he was standing just a few seconds before.

"What the…?" Riddle muttered, looking at the direction from where the spell had come from.

There were two tall figures standing a few meters from him, both of them wearing dark cloaks with hoods that hid their faces. The young Slytherin took his wand out of his robes, ready to defend himself if he needed to.

"Riddle!" he heard Granger scream, trying to attract him to far away from the cloaked wizards, "Get away from there!"

"Riddle?" one of the men laughed sarcastically, "With a name like this, you must be a filthy mudblood!"

Another spell left the man's wand and went in Tom's directions but disappeared midair as the Slytherin managed to block it with another spell. The other students who were walking near the scene started to realize what was happening and panicked, starting to try to run away from the fight.

The other wizard who hadn't done anything until the moment decided to attack anyone near them. Riddle saw the Gryffindor trio defending themselves as they became the other man's new target while he heard the man who was attacking him making more offensive comments about him.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione blocked a curse coming from the cloaked wizard as she felt Harry's hand closing around her arm and the boy trying to drag her away from the duel.

"Who are these guys!" Ron panted and ducked down to avoid being hit by a spell.

"Grindelwald's followers, I think…," the girl answered and looked around, "For Merlin's sake! Won't Riddle get away from there!"

She saw the young Slytherin standing in front of one of the attackers, staring at the man with his wand at hand, ready to attack if he needed to do so. The witch could see that his face was serious as he stared at the man but it looked like as if he was restraining himself from attacking the other.

"Do you really think that you stand a chance against me, you disgusting mudblood?" the wizard spat the words at Riddle's face and Hermione saw the boy's expression changing.

The cloaked man opened his mouth to provoke the boy even more but before he could say anything, a silent spell shot by Tom hit him and threw him backwards, making him fall on the snow covered ground. Riddle approached the man quickly, sending several curses in his direction. Hermione watched how the Slytherin seemed to finally lose his self-control… Tom looked mad, ready to kill the wizard. The witch could swear she saw a glint of red in the boy's eyes while he attacked the other man.

The girl saw professors Merrythought and Slughorn approaching the scene in a hurry. The Defenses' teacher managed to attract the attention of the wizard who kept attacking the trio while the Potion Master ran as fast as he could to where Tom was standing with the other attacker.

"What are you going to do with me, hm?" the man who was still sprawled on the snow laughed loudly, "Why don't you go back to your filth muggle family? I'm sure they'll be waiting for you!"

The man couldn't finish his sentence as a curse coming from Riddle's wand hit him right in the chest and he cried out in pain.

"Never…," the boy hissed, "NEVER call me a mudblood, do you hear me? I AM NOT A DAMNED MUDBLOOD!" Tom yanked the man by the front of his robes, making his hood fall of from his face as he did so, "You know _nothing_ about me…"

"Tom!" The Slytherin turned around, seeing Slughorn approaching him, "Go back to the castle, boy, I'll take care of this one! Go!"

Riddle stared at the man for some seconds before leaving. All the happiness that he had felt earlier when he found that snake in the village had vanished due to his encounter with those wizards.

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******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Again, it took me sometime to post... I'm back in Brazil, back to school and back to winter [good bye nice warm weather from Florida ): ...ok, I kinda of prefer the cold weather of my city XD]. About this chapter... It was fun to translate it just after I came visited Hogsmead at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter XD I think I could have described the scenary better and all but... I don't know why I didn't do it o_o'

**About this chapter...**

**1- And which use would a cat have? It would only serve to leave his clothes full of cat hair : **I have three cats and... really, I know what Tom wants to say in this last sentence XD It's not nice to wear a coat full of cat hair D:

**2 - The snake:** is Nagini... yeah. I've researched some stuff about snakes and... I think that I imagine Nagini as a Boa Constrictor (:

**3 - Grindelwald's followers:** people who followed Voldemort were called "Death Eaters" and people who followed Grindelwald were called...? Did they have any name in particular? I searched for it but didn't find anything... Well, about the attack: in HP books it's said that England wasn't so affected by Grindelwald but... I simply can't imagine Grindelwald not attacking England ._. I think that the attacks at England didn't happen as often as they did outside the country but I believed they happened every now and then (:

This chapter drawing can be found here **http : / arileli . deviantart . com / gallery / # / d2bvzzd **... It's weird but I used to love how it turned out ): I still like the spell, though.

Thanks everyone who left a review last chapter (: and thanks, M3DUSA, for correcting this chapter (:

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Ahm, that's it... Tell me what did you think about this chapter :D

;**

**Ari.**


	16. Nightmare

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 16: Nightmare**

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******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

_Tom Riddle was standing in the middle of a beautifully decorated room with a scowl on his face as he watched what was happening right in front of his eyes. There were screams echoing in the room, screams that were coming from an old lady whose body was contorting in pain on the floor. But there was also a man screaming, begging for Tom to stop the torture on the woman as he crouched next to her, looking helpless._

_ "For God's sake, stop that!" Tom laughed quietly as he heard the man's plea. "Stop, please! She has done nothing!"_

_ "Alright." The boy smiled as he waved his wand, finishing the Torture Curse that he had set upon the old lady. He watched as she took a deep breath, moaning and trying to get up, assisted by the man, who put his arms around her frail body to help her to stand, before pointing his wand at her again and murmuring another spell under his breath. "Avada Kedavra!"_

_ The man caught the woman's body as it fell limply in his arms. He started to shake her, trying to wake her up, before letting her fall on the floor._

_ "What…? What have you done?" he asked, his voice trembling. He looked up from the old lady's body and locked his icy blue eyes on Tom's. "What have you done to her!"_

_ "Isn't it obvious, Riddle?" the young wizard answered smudgy, "I've done the same thing that I'm about to do with you."_

_ The man's eyes grew wider as he stared at the younger male standing in front of him. The boy had his eyes, his pale skin, his mouth, his nose, his hair… For God's sake, he was a younger version of himself! How could it be possible? How that creature could have not inherited anything from his mother's appearance? _

_ "What do you want?" Tom Riddle Sr. asked, looking down at his mother's corpse and then at his father's, that laid sprawled on the floor across the room, "What do you want from me?"_

_ "What do I want?" _

_T__he wizard 'hmm-ed' before continuing. _

_"That's a good question."_

_ Tom Jr. started to walk toward his father, being careful not to step on the stretched arm of his grandmother's corpse as he walked by her. What did he want from that man? It was a really good question…_

_ "I want to know something," he smiled softly, twisting Morphin's wand in his hand, "I want to ask you some questions."_

_ "So stop playing around and ask them already." Tom laughed loudly at the muggle's attempt to look brave and stopped only a few feet from him._

_ "Tell me… Do you have any idea of what my life has been like since I was born? Do you know the miserable life that I have? Do you know how it is to grow up in an orphanage? How it is to live in a place where everyone hates you because of the simple fact that you're not stupidly normal as the rest of them?" The smile that had been adorning the wizard's lips until now had finally disappeared. The older man's face paled as he stared at his son and noticed that the boy was about to lose his temper, "TELL ME, YOU WORTHLESS MUGGLE! DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE TO BE ME?"_

_ "N-no… Tom…" _

_If the younger Riddle wasn't as angry as he was at the time, he was sure that he would have laughed when he saw the man lose his 'brave' expression so easily._

_ "Right, you don't know," Tom narrowed his eyes, "Because you have always been treated like a king by your dear parents, right?", he pointed at the abandoned corpses on the floor. "What are you going to do now that your mother and father are dead?"_

_ "Tom… Son…" The boy furrowed his brows as he heard how his father had called him. How many times had he dreamed about having someone calling him that? 'Son'… Now - even though part of him enjoyed listening to that man calling him that - the word seemed to be mocking him._

_ "Why do you call me that now?" The wizard's voice was trembling, "You never came after me... You never tried to look for me!" It wasn't only his voice that was trembling now, he could feel his whole body shaking, "You never cared for me! You never thought of me as your son! SO WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME THAT NOW!"_

_ "Tom, please," the muggle approached him slowly, "I'm here now… Tell me what you need and I'll give it to you." A shadow of a smile appeared on the man's face as he saw the boy's expression soften a little bit, "I can give you a place to live and… money! I can give it to you if you need! Just…" he glanced at his parent**'**s corpses before looking at his son again, "Just don't kill me, please."_

_ For a few minutes, Tom Riddle Jr. kept staring at his father's eyes, trying to discover what was going on inside the man's head and almost regretting killing Mary and Thomas Riddle… **Almost**._

_ "You should have offered all those things years ago.", the boy whispered, raising his wand as all the memories from his life in the orphanage came back to his mind, "Now it's a little bit too late, _**dad**_." The older man's eyes grew wider as he saw how serious his son's expression was, "**AVADA KEDAVRA**!"_

_ Tom Riddle Sr.'s body hit the floor with a soft 'thud' and the young wizard hesitated a little before approaching him. Tom swallowed the need to burst into tears as he poked his father's face with his shoe, feeling uncomfortable as he watched the corpse of that man who looked so much like him._

_ "You were late…," he whispered, putting his hand in his pocket and taking out the golden ring that he had stolen from Morphin, "You were fifteen years late, dad."_

_ He looked at the ring and took a deep breath, preparing himself to what would come next…_

_ The room suddenly darkened and a pained scream filled the darkness. When the room lightened again, Tom was crouching on the floor, sustaining himself on his arms and knees. When the boy couldn't stand his own weight anymore, he let himself fall on the floor, right next to his father's corpse. He felt his whole body hurt and moaned when he raised his hand to take a look at the ring that he was wearing on his finger. Tom managed to smile softly, fascinated by the fact that he was looking at a piece of his own soul._

_ Breathing slowly, Riddle got up, ignoring the pain that invaded his limbs as he did so, straightened his clothes and cleaned the sweat on his forehead. _

_ "It'll happen to you someday." A male voice spoke from behind Tom._

_ "What…?" the wizard turned around and saw his father, his supposedly dead father, standing there, "You're dead."_

_ "You'll be like that someday." the man pointed at his own corpse._

_ "I killed you… You're dead…" The younger Riddle's voice was full of fear, "I KILLED YOU! AVADA KEDAVRA!"_

_ The green curse left Morphin's wand and hit the muggle right in the chest. The man didn't seem to be bothered by the spell as he approached his son, who had a scared expression on his face._

_ "You are dead." Tom whispered, feeling his whole body trembling as his eyes began to water. **'You're not going to cry! No… You're not going to look weak in front of him!'**, "You are… A-Avada… Avada Kedavra!"_

_ Again, the curse hit his father; again without effect._

_ "Who are you trying to impress?" another male voice asked, this one had a strong German accent that Tom somewhat recognized, "A mudblood like you…"_

_ Riddle felt panic rising inside himself as he saw who was speaking with him. It was a blonde man who was wearing a dark cloak and had an evil smile on his lips. Tom recognized him as one of Grindelwald's followers._

_ "You…", the boy whispered, "I know you…"_

_ "Of course you know me, disgusting half-blood." The blond had a disgusted look on his face while he took of his wand out of his cloak._

_ Before Tom managed to say anything, his father's hand closed around his jaw, forcing him to look into his eyes. The boy shivered as he felt how cold the man's fingers were against his skin._

_ "Cold, isn't it?" he whispered and the wizard could see how his face was much paler than normal… Deadly pale, "You should get used to it, son."_

_ "N-No…"_

_ "Now, now…", the blond wizard laughed, "Time to join you muggle family, mudblood."_

_ "F-Father, please, let me go!" Tom pleaded, panicking when he saw the other wizard pointing his wand at him, "Please…"_

_ "We'll see each other again soon."_

_ "AVADA KEDAVRA!"_

Tom Riddle woke up screaming. The image of the green lightening rushing towards him was still burning on his mind as he sat up on his bed and breathed heavily.

"It was only a dream, Tom, only a dream," the boy whispered, gripping his own hair as he tried to calm down, "It wasn't real."

_ 'Part of it was real,' _something screamed in his head, but he tried to ignore it.

The wizard took a deep breath and got up from his bed, deciding that the best he could do was walking around the Head's dorms to try to calm down. When the boy entered the common room, he let himself fall on the couch lazily, hoping that his panic would soon vanish.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione woke up as she heard noises coming from the room next door and rubbed her face, yawning while she sat up on her bed.

"Riddle… Doesn't he know that there are people trying to sleep in here?", she whispered, getting up from her bed and walking to her room's door, ready to knock on the head-boy's door and demand him to shut up and go back to bed.

The witch felt as if someone had hit her right in the face when she looked into the common room and saw Tom Riddle sitting on the couch with a scared expression on his pale face. Hermione furrowed her brows as she kept staring at the Slytherin.

"Riddle?" she called softly, but the boy didn't seem to listen to her, "Riddle, are you alright?"

The girl walked toward Tom slowly and then sat next to him, even though the wizard didn't seem to notice her presence. Hermione touched his hand, trying to get his attention, and gasped as she felt how cold his skin felt against her fingers.

"For Merlin's sake, Riddle! What happened?" she whispered, seeing how he slowly turned his head to look at her, "You're so nervous… Wait here."

The girl got up and rushed toward her room, where she searched for the vial of Calming Potion that she had prepared during the Potion's class. When Hermione finally found the vial, she went back to the common room and, with a wave of her wand, prepared a cup of tea, where she poured some of the potion before handing it to the boy.

"Here, drink it." The witch watched as his trembling hands held the cup, "It'll make you feel better."

Tom brought the cup to his lips and drank the tea slowly while Hermione kept looking at him worriedly. The girl smiled softly when the boy finally handed her the empty cup, which vanished with a simple flick of her wand, and put her hand on his arm, trying to make him look at her.

"Riddle?"

Sighing as she noticed that the Slytherin wouldn't speak to her, Hermione put her arm around his shoulders, trying make him know that she was there right next to him in case he needed anything. To her surprise, Riddle didn't try to get away from her touch; on the contrary, he leaned in, resting his head against her shoulder. The witch's eyes widened when she saw that Tom Riddle was trying to get comfort form her… Lord Voldemort was seeking solace in her!

_ 'The world is turning upside down,' _she thought, smiling softly as she ran her fingers through Tom's dark hair, noticing that his breath was slowing down and that his body was stopping trembling. The girl kept herself from laughing at her situation: she, a mudblood, was comforting the future Dark Lord, who hated anything that was muggle related!

Letting herself relax against the couch as she noticed that Riddle wouldn't move from there any time soon, Hermione's other hand found Tom's right one. The Gryffindor squeezed his hand gently, feeling the ring that he always wore pressed against her palm… She had a Horcrux in her hand and she couldn't do anything. The girl tried to vanish the frustration from her mind as she skimmed her fingers along Riddle's, smiling softly when she felt a small callus on the side of the boy's ring finger. _'Probably from supporting the quill while writing,'_ the witch thought, _'And supporting it on the wrong finger."_

Sighing, Hermione closed her eyes, wondering what had happened to make Riddle become so scared, and, after a few minutes, fell asleep right next to the man who was supposed to be her enemy.

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******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Yeps, I'm still alive :D Before I talk about the chapter, let me explain why it took me so long: again, it was because of school... Remember that I said I was accepted in an university, into the medicine course? So, I managed to get myself registered into the course [here in Brazil, we have 3 years of high school and I'm in the third year... I couldn't have registered myself into university yet, I should have finished high school before, but we managed to do it] but now I have to go to high school, to finish the third year, and to university... the only problem is that I live in Curitiba and the university is four hours from here, in a city called Florianópolis. So, every sunday I travel to Florianópolis, watch three classes on Monday [I must do at least one class this year I will guarantee my place in the course] and come back to Curitiba at night... and the rest of the week I study in high school D: In short: I'm doing high school and university at the same time... and in October I'll start to have tests to be accepted in other universities here in my city :B That's why it took me so much time to post... (: Just so you know that from now on it'll be a bit more difficult for me to post here, but I won't abandon the story.

Okay, enough of talking about myself... About this chapter: even though it has basically only two scenes, this is one of my favorite chapter of Riddle's :D I dont know why, I think I love to see Tom looking vulnerable and Hermione comforting him. Oh, and also, it has Tom Riddle Sr. in it :D I know the man has, what? Three lines in the whole Harry Potter series, but he is one of my favorite characters :D [that's so true that I'm writing another fanfiction in portuguese where Tom Sr. is, along with Tom Jr., the main character :D].

**1- Tom's nightmare:** J.K Rowling says that Voldemort's greatest fear is death, so I believe that a dream where he is killed is like... Tom's worst nightmare o_o'

**2- _'Probably from supporting the quill while writing,'_ the witch thought, _'And supporting it on the wrong finger.' :_** does anyone here have a callus on the ring finger? I have \o\ From drawing/writing too much and, just like Tom, supporting the pencil on the wrong finger... My mom says that most people support the pen/pencil on the middle finger, but I simply can't write if I support it on my middle finger D: So, poor Tom, I gave him the small callus that I have on my finger :D

Thanks a lot, M3DUSA, for correcting my mistakes in this chapter *-*

Thanks everyone who left a review last chapter and I hope you like this one (:

;**

**Ari.**


	17. With a little help from my enemy

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 17: With a little help from my enemy**

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Hermione opened her eyes slowly, but closed them right after noticing that the sunlight was penetrating through the windows of the Head's dormitory. The girl rubbed her face with her hand before opening her eyes again, getting used to the light, and looking around, feeling her neck hurt a little bit as a result from falling asleep on the couch. The witch smiled softly when she noticed that Tom Riddle was still leaning on her, sleeping. She laughed quietly, after all, it isn't every day that the most feared dark wizard of all times falls asleep against your shoulder. Closing her eyes again, Hermione yawned and let her head fall against the couch. She stayed like that for some time until she felt something cold sliding around her neck.

"What?"

The first thing the witch saw when she opened her eyes was a snake's head. The serpent's dark eyes were fixed on her face, staring at her as if it was trying to discover what she was thinking. It didn't take too much time for the girl let out a horrified scream and get up from the couch quickly, forgetting that Tom was still sleeping besides her. The boy woke up with her scream and almost fell on the snake, which was now crawling in his direction, seeking protection.

"Where did it come from!", Hermione asked, desperately pointing at the snake that was now wrapping itself around the Slytherin's arm, "don't tell that you brought it here!"

"Yes, I did," he answered, becoming, once again, the rude Slytherin that she knew.

"It could have killed me!"

"She won't hurt anyone unless I order her to do so," the boy sneered, getting up and walking to his room, "Ah, Granger… If you tell what happened here last night to anyone, I swear that you'll regret even being born."

And, saying that, he closed the door behind himself. The witch kept staring at where he was a few seconds ago, telling herself that she would never talk about the incident of the previous night… She knew that Riddle would keep his word.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The last week of classes before the holidays was passing quickly. The students weren't even paying attention to the classes anymore, as they were too anxious with the perspective of having a little break in a few days. Harry and Ron were among the groups of students who weren't worried about school, Hermione, on the other hand, was trying to concentrate on her studies, but her friends laziness seemed to be contagious. The three of them had already done all their homework, so they would be able to enjoy their holiday.

"Is it just me or Riddle is quieter this week?" Minerva asked during the breakfast.

"You're right, Minerva," Harry agreed while looking at the Slytherin's table, "He is too quiet this week… Is there something wrong, Mione?"

The girl, who was staring at them with an annoyed look on her face, shook her head before answering. "Do you have to think that everything that happens is suspicious?," the girl said and, noticing that McGonagall was busy talking with Septimus Weasley, whispered to her friends, "I know that we are talking about You-Know-Who, but maybe he just want to be quiet in his own little corner…"

"Hermione, are you alright?" Ron asked, staring at his friend with a curious expression on his face.

She just nodded, remembering what Tom had told her about not talking about what had happened inside the dorms.

"It seems that something happened and you don't want to tell us," the green eyes boy whispered, "What happened? Did Riddle do something to you?"

"No, Harry, he didn't do anything! I just… I'm just a little tired, that's why I'm acting strange today."

"If you say so," the two boys shrugged before finishing eating their breakfast.

The witch sighed and looked at the Slytherin's. Riddle was staring at her so intensely that it made her feel uncomfortable. It was as if the other was trying to discover what she was talking about with her friends, if she was keeping her word. Hermione turned around and, once again, looked at her housemates, trying to think about something that wasn't a certain bad humored Slytherin.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

A group of fourth years Ravenclaws crossed the castle's yards running when they heard the Head Girl ordering them to go back to their house. The girl was patrolling the castle that night, making sure that every student was in their respective Common Rooms and that no one was having a midnight stroll around Hogwarts. It wasn't the most interesting thing to do, but she didn't mind… After all, she had agreed to become Head Girl even though she knew all the work she would have to do.

Hermione stopped in front the castle's door and looked around. Everything was quiet in the cold and snow covered yard… It made the witch feel extremely calm. She didn't know why, but that solitary scenery made her feel good. The Gryffindor was pulled away from her thoughts when she heard some muffled steps and saw, if only for a moment, some boys running across the yard. She sighed softly before following them, ready to make them run right back to their house.

The girl couldn't see the boys' faces, but she noticed, by looking at their robes, that they were three Slytherins. Hermione kept following the group, noticing that they were heading to the Quidditch Pitch, when she finally recognized one of them: Abraxas Malfoy. It was him who was leading the group, crossing the snow covered grounds as quick as possible.

_"This is not only a midnight stroll,"_ the Head Girl thought.

When she finally reached the pitch, it took some time for the witch to find the others in the Slytherin's dressing room. Now she could see their faces very well… Alphard Avery and Canopus Lestrange were the boys who were accompanying Malfoy.

"You better have an important thing to tell him, Malfoy," the brown haired boy, Avery, spoke, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"I have, believe me," the blonde smirked and, before Hermione could notice, his wand was pointing at her, _"PETRIFICUS TOTALUS!"_

Feeling all her body become rigid, the girl fell to the floor with a loud '_thud'_. Abraxas approached Hermione, smiling, and took the wand from her hand, before grasping the hood of her robes and dragging her to where the other boys were standing.

"Good night, Ms. Granger," the Slytherin spoke, waving his wand and lifting the spell from her, "You know… We wanted to ask you some questions."

Hermione didn't waste time when she noticed that her body was not petrified anymore. The witch got up and ran to the door's direction, but, before she could reach it, one of the boys grasped her and held her in place.

"I think I forgot to tell you that there's no use to run," the blonde chuckled and squeezed her arm, "Anyway, answer me, mudblood: what are you and your Gryffindor friends hiding?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Malfoy," she practically spat the words in his face.

"Don't talk to me in that tone, muggle!" the Slytherin hissed and slapped Hermione across the face. The girl felt her cheek burning and almost lost her balance when she felt his hand impact against her face.

"Didn't you understand? I don't know what you're talking about!"

"Damn it, Abraxas!" Lestrange sighed and walked forward, "She won't speak if you keep treating her so gently," Canopus smirked as he held his wand and pointed it to the Gryffindor, "Let's make it faster… _CRUCIO!"_

Hermione screamed as she felt a terrible pain shot through her body, before falling to the ground. It was a pain that she couldn't compare to anything that she had ever felt in her life. It was as if an unknown force were squeezing all the nerves of her body. The girl wasn't sure, but apparently the others future Death Eaters were shooting more curses at her, making her feel even more uncomfortable. It didn't take much time until she started crying.

"So?" Lestrange started, stopping the curse for a moment, "Is there anything that you want to tell us?"

"N-No…"

"How sad… _Crucio_."

She wouldn't say a word to them; she would endure that torture until they gave up trying to make her speak. When Hermione felt the Cruciatus curse fading and heard the voices of the Slytherin's getting lower, she curled up on the floor, trying to ignore what was happening around her.

"I'll take care of you later."

The witch knew that voice too well, and it was because of that voice that her fear grew even more when she heard the other boys leaving the changing room. She didn't want to be alone with Tom Riddle. Hermione shivered as she started to imagine what he would do with her. One thing was having a bunch of future Death Eaters torturing you, another was having the future Lord Voldemort himself doing it.

The pain from Cruciatus didn't come as she thought it would, instead the girl felt the Head Boy's fingers grasp her hair and yank her head upwards forcefully, making her look at him. Tom was staring at her with an inexpressive face. It was impossible to know what he was about to do.

"They are not the only ones who think that you're hiding something, Ms. Granger," the boy whispered, "So, why don't you tell me your little secret?"

"I don't know what you're talking about, Riddle! I'm not hiding anything…"

"Well, that's sad," Tom took his wand out of his robes' pocket and pointed it at the witch whose eyes instantly grew wider as she tried to get away from him, "Granger, Granger," the boy chuckled, still grasping her hair and preventing her from running away, "There's no need to be scared, I won't hurt you… _Legilimens!"_

And then, everything happened too quickly. The spell allowed the Slytherin to enter Hermione's mind easily, as she wasn't expecting him to do that. The first thing Riddle saw was a blurred image of two boys whom he recognized as being Pevensie and Purkiss. When the image changed, the boy could see a couple whose faces were a lot like Hermione's, maybe they were her parents who were killed by dark wizard who worked for Grindelwald. But what caught his attention the most was the last thing that showed up in her mind… It was a wizard dressed in dark robes and with a sickly pale skin and scarlet eyes. The man's face were a lot like a snake's head, and the way he was standing, imposingly, with his wand pointing to some invisible target showed how powerful he was. Tom couldn't help but feel a certain admiration towards the unknown sorcerer.

_"He's already Voldemort…"_

Before he managed to sneak deeper into the girl's mind, the Slytherin felt as if someone had just pushed him away from her and suddenly he was out of her thoughts. Hermione was staring at him with her wide eyes filled with fear. She seemed to be more scared now then when his housemates were torturing her.

"Where…" the boy began, finally showing a emotion: rage, "Where did you hear that name?"

"Riddle…"

"WHERE DID YOU HEAR THAT NAME, MUDBLOOD?", he grasped her arm forcefully, making it evident that he had finally lost his usual self-control, "_CRUC…!"_

"Riddle, stop!" Hermione screamed, somehow managing to escape from him.

When the girl shoved his hands away from her, Tom ended up losing his balance and falling over her. If they weren't in such a tense situation it would even be comic. Now he was on the floor with the mudblood girl clinging to him and hiding her face in his chest, her small hands grasping the fabric of his cloak with a force that he didn't know she had.

"Get away from me, Granger!" Riddle sneered, sitting up and trying to push her away from himself.

"Please, Riddle…"

The Gryffindor had a regrettable appearance. Her face was stained with tears while she tried to hide it in Tom's clothes. The wizard could feel her whole body trembling as she mumbled some incoherent words and felt disgusted… The image of that desperate and unprotected mudblood made him remember of his muggle relatives a few moments before they were killed.

Riddle was ready to perform a spell that would make the girl get away from him when something in his head made him stop… Maybe it was the memory of the girl's comfortable embrace that managed to calm him down a few days ago, or maybe it was the fact that the witch seemed to never let him think that she was a coward. Even now that she was so miserable she wouldn't run away from him.

"Please, Riddle, don't… don't…" he heard Hermione's muffled voice saying, "Please…"

Tom looked at the girl for one last time before sighing heavily, putting his hands on her shoulders and pushing her away from him, gently, feeling betrayed by himself. The Gryffindor refused to look straight into his eyes, afraid that, if she did, she would see the scarlet eyes of Lord Voldemort staring back at her, but was obligated to do so when the boy touched her chin and made her look up to him. Riddle's eyes were, once again, inexpressive.

"What are you doing?" she asked, seeing that he had his wand pointing at her face now.

"You're hurt. I think you may have not even noticed when one of their spells hit you…"

Hermione touched her own face, finally noticing the injury on her cheek when she felt her own blood dirtying her fingers.

"_Ego vigoratus_," the witch felt a strange sensation of her skin being pulled over the injury, but, after a moment, the only thing that remained was a funny tingling on her cheek, "Done."

Hermione looked at him in confusion, trying to understand what the Slytherin was planning to do. It wasn't possible that he had simply abandoned his objective of torturing her to make her speak! When the girl tried to sit in a better position, she felt her body begin to hurt again thanks to the Cruciatus Curse that she had received from the other Slytherins.

"It would be more intelligent from you if you didn't move," he pointed his wand at her again, "_Poena evanidus."_

The pain in her body seemed to ease a little bit, not entirely, but it was enough to make her feel more comfortable. Tom smiled softly, noticing that his spell had worked when he saw the relieved expression on the girl's face.

"Is there anything else hurting?" he asked when he saw that the witch was still silently crying.

Hermione shook her head, lying. Her body was still hurting a little, but what was really bothering her was the fact that she had been humiliated by Malfoy, Lestrange, Avery and, worst of all, Riddle.

"So, why are you crying?"

"Why am I…? _Merlin_, Riddle! Are you stupid or what!" the Gryffindor screamed, "I've just been tortured by your stupid friends, after that, you invaded my mind and, until some minutes ago, you were trying to torture me! Isn't it enough to make my cry!"

Riddle's eyes widened as he saw how, suddenly, the witch started crying even harder. He restrained himself from using Legilimency to discover what was going through her mind… Why the hell had she started to cry like that again? What he had done to her wasn't even that bad! He surely could make worse stuff.

Hermione tried to get up from the floor, but, when she was finally standing, her legs gave in bellow herself. Tom managed to catch her before she hit the cold floor. It seemed that the girl had gave up trying to get away from him, as now she was, once again, grasping his clothes in some kind of desperate embrace, trying to seek comfort in him.

"Granger?" the boy looked at her, confused, "Will you let me go?"

The Head Girl didn't. She just stayed like that, face buried into his chest, sobbing like a child. Riddle took a deep breath before passing his arms around the girl, remembering what she had done to him a few nights ago. The boy felt her hands fall from his clothes and noticed that now he was the only thing that was holding her. Tom had never comforted anyone. He usually kept distance from all this sentimentalism… He always did the same thing that the others did when he needed comfort.

"Granger," he whispered, trying to catch her attention, "Stop crying, will you? It doesn't help."

Hermione said something that he couldn't understand, but didn't get away from him and neither stopped crying. Riddle managed to not push her away and saw that the Gryffindor was slowly calming down.

"You better stop crying," he tried to talk to her, "You look better when you're trying to be better than me… not that you'll manage to be better than me someday, but it's better to see you doing that than crying."

When the witch didn't answer, the boy looked down at her, trying to discover if she had heard him, and saw that Hermione had actually fallen asleep in his arms. Breathing deeply and telling himself not to wake her up, Tom put his arms under her body and lifted her from the floor.

The girl didn't give any signal of conscience during all the way up to the dormitory, and neither when Riddle put her in her bed, before walking back to his own room.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**N/A:** Hello! Long time without a word from me, right? Yeah, I'm sorry, I was in the end of my school year (in high school) [okay, I had already passed the year, but I had tons of admission tests for universities...actually, five) and the end of my first semester at med school (so, more tests of citology, ethics and biochemistry...) ... Thankfully I managed to finish the year in both high school and university without failing any subject and without getting any finals :D but now school and uni are over (for now) :D

Now, about this chapter... ahm... It wasn't corrected by any beta reader, so it must be full of mistakes (especially when it comes to quotation marks, I'm still getting used to these little things). Anyway, this chapter was, originally, two chapters... Chapter 17 ended exactly when Tom appeared in the changing room, but I thought that it would be too mean to stop it in that scene, especially after months without uptading this fic... So, this is a mash up of the originals chapter 17 and 18. (:

I must say that I love this chapter...

**1-** I really enjoyed writing Tom getting into Hermione's mind and seeing Voldemort... and admiring him; I mean, Voldemort is powerful... and Tom wants power, the image of Voldemort screams "I'm powerful!" and... well, that's all Tom wants for himself, I think (that and immortality).

**2-** Riddle being uncomfortable while trying to comfort Hermione... I imagine him being the kind of person that doesn't like to get involved with "sentimental stuff"... He had never had someone next to him, comforting him when he needed, so when it comes to him comfort someone, he feels weird, he doesn't know what to do.

**3- Mione:** I've never thought about this but... In the English version of the books, they never call Hermione "Mione", right? In the Portuguese version (of both books and movies) Harry and Ron are always calling her that ._. I think it's a cute nickname, that's why I put it inthe story instead of "Herms", one that I've seen being used a lot in English.

4- "**_Ego vigoratus"_**, according to a latin translator I found on internet, means "I heal you" or something like that... and **"_Poena Evanidus_**" means "Vanishing the pain".

**5- "With a little help from my enemy":** when I put this title in this chapter, last year, I was addicted to the Beatles' song "With a little help from my friends"... yeah, crazy me.

That's it :D Now... I don't know when I'll be posting next chapter, I have so many things to write XD I have two multi-chaptered HP fanfictions in portuguese (Like father, like son, which is about Tom Riddle Sr. and Tom Riddle Jr. , and Coroner Stories, which is a Alternative Universe TomMione fanfiction in which Tom is a forensic doctor and Mione is psychiatrist XD), a original story, also in portuguese, and a Glee fanfiction that my sister asked me to write for her... and, also, I was thinking about translating a Christmas special fanfiction I wrote last year... It's about Tom Riddle and it has 5 chapters, it's like a parody of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens... I'll try to translate it and post it before Christmas :D I hope I have time to do all these stuff XD On the 23th of Deember I'll be traveling to the beach with my family to spend Christmas and New Year's eve there... and next week I may travel to Florianópolis to rent a bigger flat for me ... wow, I still can't believe I'll be living by myself next year D:

Okay, I talked too much already... I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and thanks everyone who left a review on last chapter (:  
Tell me what did you think of this one (;

**Ari.**


	18. What's this?

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 18: What's this?**

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Hermione noticed that the castle was almost empty when she left the Gryffindor common room that morning. Almost all of the students had headed back home to spend the holidays with their families, and only a few young wizards and witches had stayed at Hogwarts. The girl noticed how the Great Hall was unusually quiet when she entered it to eat breakfast. She found Harry, Ron and a few third years at the Gryffindor table. Looking around, the witch saw that only Riddle and Eileen Prince were at the Slytherin table, while the Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff tables had a couple of students each.

"Morning, Mione," the red haired boy said as he saw her approaching them, looking at her with a curious expression. " You alright?"

"I'm great, Ron," the witch lied.

"You don't look great," this time it was Harry who spoke. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing! I just think I had a bad night…"

The boys stared at her for a few minutes before shrugging and deciding that it was better not to bother their friend. Hermione sighed in relief. The last thing she needed was to let her friends know that she had been tortured by soon-to-be Death Eaters a few nights ago. After all, the girl knew very well how Harry and Ron would react and she really didn't want to see the two Gryffindors getting into a fight with some Slytherins.

"So, Dumbledore came here and told us that we're allowed to go to Hogsmeade today," said Harry. "What do you think?"

"For me it's great." The Weasley smiled. "I really need to buy more Chocolate Frogs and… What? Come on, Hermione, no one sends them to me anymore, I have to go there by myself and buy them!"

"I didn't say anything, Ron." The witch laughed. "And I do think it's a good idea. I mean, to go to Hogsmeade… After all, Christmas is in a few days and I have to buy your gifts."

"Oh, are we going to get gifts from you?"

"I always give you two something on Christmas. Why wouldn't I do this year, Harry?"

"Well, I thought that due to the fact that we are… You know… Stuck here…"

"It doesn't matter which year we're in," Hermione whispered, smiling softly to the boys. "You two are still my friends and I won't leave my friends without gifts on Christmas…"

"Have we already said that you're the best, Hermione?" Ron laughed.

The three of them laughed and finished their breakfast. After that, the trio went up to the Gryffindor tower to get their stuff, then head out to Hogsmeade. Just like the castle though, the village was empty… The snow-covered streets seemed strange when they were not crowded with Hogwarts' students, but the emptiness of Hogsmeade was also a good thing. The three friends spent their time going around the village, noticing stores that they had never seen before while they tried to find each other a good Christmas gift.

"So, what do you want for Christmas, Mione?"

"I have no idea, Ron," the girl said while she looked at a few kittens through the window display of the pet store. "No idea."

"I hate it when people say that." The red haired sighed. "Please, don't even bother telling us that you don't want anything, because we're going to buy something."

"Alright." Hermione smiled. "And what you two want for Christmas?"

"Anything," the boys answered together.

"Oh, that's much better than 'I have no idea'."

"Okay, so Harry and I are going to try to find you a gift while you do the same, alright?"

"Alright," said the witch. "Just don't buy me dungbomb or something like that!"

"Do they even sell dungbombs in this year?" Ron said as he and Harry laughed , walking away from Hermione, leaving her standing in front of the pet store by herself. The girl looked at the kittens once again, wondering what had happened to her own cat, before walking away, trying to think of something she could buy for Harry and Ron.

"Hello, Granger."

"Hello, Riddle." Nothing had changed between them. Tom's coldness was still in his voice just like how Hermione's sarcasm was in hers. "Enjoying the holidays?"

"Yes, it a good time of the year… I don't have to endure the others' messes." The boy smiled softly.

"You never leave Hogwarts during the end of the year?"

"Why would I, Granger?" the Slytherin laughed as if she had just told him a joke. "Go back to the orphanage and freeze? No thank you, I prefer to stay here at Hogwarts… Let me guess, it's the first time you stayed away from your parents on Christmas, right?"

"No." The girl stared at him with a serious expression on her face, seeing how the smug smile was still clinging on his lips. "But it's the first Christmas I'm spending it without them and knowing I won't be seeing them again." Riddle's smile faltered a little, but it was only a matter of seconds before his grin was fully back on his face. "But I believe you don't understand how it feels."

"You're right, Granger." Tom's face finally became serious. "I don't… Now, if you'll excuse me…"

Hermione watched as Riddle turned around and walked away, taking his time to stop in front of each store he passed by. The girl sighed and shook her head… She would never understand him; that was a fact. First of all, it seemed that the memory of her being tortured by his housemates had been completely erased from the Slytherin's mind…Then again, Riddle had this ability to come up with unexpected and uncomfortable conversations that she hated.

_"Ignore him,"_ she thought. _"It's the best thing you can do…"_

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The Three Broomsticks was oddly empty; only a few villagers and teachers were in there. Hermione had managed to pass by unnoticed by Slughorn, who was too busy talking with some wizards about the last time he visited Germany, before the war had started.

"Yes, yes… A beautiful country! It's a shame that… Oh! Hello, Tom! How are you? Come here, let me introduce you. Gentlemen, this is my most brilliant student…"

Hermione laughed lightly as she noticed that Riddle didn't have the same luck as her. The Potion's teacher was now speaking about how brilliant Tom was, while the boy looked extremely bored.

"If he only knew what his 'most brilliant student' will become," Ron whispered, taking a sip of his butterbeer. "Don't look at me like that, Mione! I know you think the same thing."

The girl sighed and opened her mouth to answer, but before she could say anything, Slughorn's voice echoed inside the Three Broomsticks once again.

"And there is his companion, Ms. Gran… Ah! Ms. Granger! I hadn't seen you there!" The teacher smiled, waving his hand at her. "Come here…. I was just telling these gentlemen how you and Mr. Riddle are the best students I have ever seen!"

"Ahm, professor, we were already heading back to the castle." Hermione smiled nervously. "We have to… ahm… finish an essay! Yes, we have to finish an essay for History of Magic."

"Oh, that's alright, my dear." Horace smiled at her, before turning to the other wizards again. "See how she's a responsible young lady? Worrying about homework during the holidays!"

The Gryffindor girl squeaked a quick "goodbye" to the teacher and went away quickly, seeing a glint of annoyance appear in Riddle's eyes when he saw that she had managed to escape from Slughorn while he was still stuck with the teacher.

"He wasn't like that with you back in our sixth year," said Harry when Hermione finally reached him and Ron at the restaurant's door, looking one last time to the head of Slytherin.

"Just because he had you to bother." The witch laughed. "You were the diamond of his collection."

"And now the diamonds are you and Riddle," said Ron. "How weird is that?"

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione smiled as she walked into the Gryffindor common room, feeling good while she stood inside the red and golden room that was decorated for Christmas. Her two friends were sitting on a couch by the fireplace, opening their Christmas gifts with a wide smile on their faces.

"You two look like children!"

"Happy Christmas, Mione!" The red haired boy smiled and pointed at the box on his lap. "Thanks for the gift!"

The girl sat down on the empty space between the two boys and put her arms around the two, pulling them closer and making them almost lose their balance.

"Mione?"

"Happy Christmas," she said, feeling her eyes welling up with tears. "Have you noticed how weird it is? We're celebrating Christmas before our parents were even born."

"It's alright, Mione," Harry said. "You don't have to worry… By the way, open your gift!"

The witch nodded, looking at the package that her friend was holding out to her. Harry had given her a new set of quills and ink bottles, while Ron bought her a blue scarf that reminded her of Mrs. Weasley's knitted clothes and a box of Chocolate Cauldrons.

"Thank you." She smiled. "Thank you so much."

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

When Hermione went back to her dormitory after the Christmas Feast, she saw Tom Riddle sitting on their common room's couch, his eyes locked on the fireplace while his hand stroked his new pet snake that was entwining itself around his wrist.

"Merry Christmas, Riddle," she spoke, walking by the boy without even looking at him and heading to her room.

As always, the girl locked herself up in her room, trying to keep the Slytherin away. The Gryffindor was already going into her bathroom to change into her pajamas when she saw a simple black package lying on the top of her bed. Hermione took the package in her hands and opened it carefully, gasping as she what she saw.

Actually, it wasn't anything too spectacular, only a black book with its title written in golden letters… But it wasn't really the book which caught the witch's attention. Shaking her head, Hermione left the copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray on her bed and then walked back to her room's door.

"Riddle?" she called, approaching the boy who was now looking at her with a curious expression on his pale face. "Thank you… for the book."

"You're welcome," the Slytherin spoke, looking back at the snake on his arm. "I found it on Tomes & Scrolls and, though I didn't know they sold Muggle books, I remembered that you wanted to read it."

She smiled, seeing how Riddle seemed to be entertained by the serpent which was now climbing up his arm. After a while, the girl noticed that the silence was beginning to become uncomfortable.

"Does it have a name?"

"Nagini."

"It's… pretty," she said a little nervously. "But tell me, why doesn't it try to attack you? I mean, it's a snake!"

"Let's just say that she understands me," Tom answered and, to the witch's surprise, a soft, but true smile appeared on his lips when he looked down at the serpent. "She won't attack me… She won't attack anyone unless I tell her to do so."

"So it's a she…" Hermione smiled.

"Yes."

The girl approached Tom and put a hand on his arm, making him look at her as if she were some kind of unknown creature.

"Thank you very much for the book, Riddle." she smiled, pulling her hand away from his arm. "Happy Christmas, again…"

But before closing the door of her room, the witch could swear she heard the boy's voice whispering a soft "Happy Christmas".

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

******A/N: **Hello :D New chapter for you... I don't know if I have much to say about this chapter. I really like this last scene, with Tom and Hermione talking about Nagini... and I also really enjoy the scenes wher the trio is together in this chapter (: Ah, yeah, the title of the chapter came from that song _"What's this?"_ from Nightmare Before Christmas, because when I first wrote it, I couldn't stop listening to this song.

So...two little things I want to tell you:

**1-** I did a little drawing of chapter 05, if you want to take a look at it: **arileli . deviantart . com / # / d39lz90** (no drawing for this chapter because I didn't know what to draw).

**2 - **I'll be doing a little advertising here now, for two fanfictions actually, first, a fanfiction a friend of mine if writing, it's a really lovely SeverusLily story called **Always**, so, if you're interested in reading it, just take a look at her profile **(HelenaForneck)**, and, second, another fanfiction I'm writing, also about Tom, called **Like father, like son** ... This fic, along with RR, is one of my favourite story to write :D

Well, that's it... I'm sorry it took me so long to update (again). Thanks everyone who left a review on last chapter and thank you so much, **Shadow6116**, for beta reading this chapter.

Well, tell me what you think about this little chapter :D

**Ari.**


	19. Both a little scared

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 19: Both a little scared**

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_Tale as old as time _  
_True as it can be _  
_Barely even friends_  
_Then somebody bends _  
_Unexpectedly _

_Just a little change _  
_Small, to say the least _  
_Both a little scared _  
_Neither one prepared _  
_Beauty and the Beast _

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_'Ms. Granger,_

_Professor Dippet has allowed me to throw a small party for the students who remained at the castle to celebrate the New Year. So, I hope to see you at the Great Hall on New Years Eve, at 10 PM. You can bring your friends, Mr. Pevensie and Mr. Purkiss._

_Sincerely yours,_

_Horace Slughorn._

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"I hope this party will be better than the ones we had last year," Harry whispered to his friend as they entered the Great Hall.

"I don't know how Slug's parties were last year." The read haired boy shrugged. "I wasn't in the Slug Club, remember? So, anything will be okay for me."

The Great Hall's decorations resembled the ones used in the Yule Ball, and though they weren't as extravagant as the latter, it didn't make the place look less beautiful. There was only one long table where the teachers and students were sitting together.

The two Gryffindors quickly found Hermione, who was sitting between Slughorn and Riddle. She had an uncomfortable expression on her face as she listened to the teacher speaking with her and the Head Boy. The girl was wearing a dark blue dress and her hair was less bushy than usual, thanks to the same potion she had used on her fourth year for the Yule Ball.

"Hi, Mione." Ron smiled at her. "You look… nice."

"Thank you, Ron." She laughed, seeing how the red haired boy was trying not to commit the same mistake he did when he was fourteen years old.

The rest of the dinner went by normally. The teachers usually tried to start a good conversation with the students, who were mostly too shy to talk to them in a comfortable way. Slughorn was the one who talked the most, always including Tom or Hermione in his conversations, saying out loud about lucky he was for having such great students in his class. Harry and Ron sat in silence for the most part, talking in a low voice between themselves and, once in a while, shooting suspicious looks in Riddle's direction. The two Gryffindors seemed to be eager to go back to Gryffindor Tower and celebrate the end of the year there, away from the other students, from the teachers and especially from Tom Riddle.

"Where are you going?" Hermione asked as she watched her friends getting up as soon as they finished their dessert.

"Back to the Tower. At least there aren't certain kinds of people in there, Mione," the dark haired boy spoke, quickly glancing at the Slytherin sitting next to the girl.

The witch shrugged and got up, but before she could follow her friends, the Potions teacher called her.

"Ms. Granger? You aren't going to leave us now, are you?" The wizard walked up to her and put his arm around her shoulders. "Come on now, the party hasn't even started! And it's almost midnight too."

The girl turned around and glanced at Harry and Ron, gesturing for them to go without her. She knew the Potion's Master wouldn't rest until the Head Girl gave in to his request for her to stay for some time. As soon as he noticed Hermione would stay, Slughorn waved his wand, making the Great Hall fill up with music. It didn't take long for the few students who were there to get up and start dancing with one another, though they still seemed to be intimidated by the presence of their teachers.

Hermione watched as one or two couples started to dance with the song that was playing and was surprised to see a few teachers dancing too. She smiled as she saw Dumbledore and Professor Merrythought dancing together and laughing at what the other was saying.

"Good night, Granger."

"Ah, Riddle…" the girl said, rolling her eyes when she saw the Slytherin boy standing next to her. "Good night."

"Your friends went back to their dormitories pretty early."

"I know. They were tired, since they stayed up the whole night doing some essays for History of Magic." She gave him a fake smile, only to receive another one in exchange.

"Funny, I thought I heard you telling Slughorn you and your friends were going to do this essay before Christmas." Hermione's smile disappeared as the boy's widened, before he shook his head and laughed softly. "So… Do you want to dance?"

The witch gave him an incredulous look. "I can't… I can't dance," she lied. "I don't know how."

"So I'll be the one leading, right?" the boy shrugged and extended his hand to her.

The girl stared at him for a few minutes before taking his hand. The Slytherin smiled in an almost imperceptible way and lead her to where the other students were dancing. Hermione cursed her luck as she heard the song changing to a way slower one and felt Riddle's hand holding her waist firmly. Tom took a step to begin the dance, taking the girl along with him, and Hermione let herself go, feeling a wave of security invading her body as she noticed how confidently the other lead the dance.

"I thought you didn't know how to dance," Riddle said.

"I don't know how to dance very well." Hermione laughed as she remembered her and Viktor Krum dancing rather clumsily at the Yule Ball. But then she remembered something that had passed unnoticed by her during the whole day. "Merlin! I just remembered it now… Happy birthday, Riddle."

The witch remembered Harry saying Voldemort had been born on New Year's Eve, but never thought this information would be of any importance for her. Only now, when she was dancing with the said man, did that small fact decide to pop up in her mind.

The Slytherin seemed a little surprised… Apparently he wasn't too used to getting "Happy Birthdays" every year.

"Thank you," he whispered, pulling her closer to himself. "Not that a birthday is something to be celebrated… It's just one year less in your life, one year closer to death."

"Shut up, Riddle!" The girl laughed. "It's another year you've survived in this mad world of ours. Why do you have to always see the bad side of the things?"

Instead of answering, Tom swirled the girl, who had let herself go with the movement, before pulling her closer again. Riddle was still holding her waist while his other hand squeezed hers lightly as she stared at him.

The song ended and, instead of hearing another song starting, Slughorn's happy voice sounded through the Great Hall, counting down the seconds to the end of the year. When the clock finally hit midnight, the students and teachers cheered and started to wish a 'Happy New Year' to each other, celebrating the new year of 1945.

"Happy New Year, Granger," the boy whispered, not letting go of the girl.

"Happy New Year…"

Before she could finish the sentence, Hermione felt the wizard's cold lips covering hers. Static… That was how she was for some time, and the only movement she risked doing was closing her eyes. Tom had not moved either and only kept his lips pressed against the Gryffindor's, and did nothing to deepen the kiss. It was as if everything else around them had vanished and the only things that remained for Hermione were Tom's lips over hers. Unfortunately, something clicked inside the girl's mind, something telling her to back away from the boy who was kissing her…

And that was what she did. The Gryffindor jumped back, breaking the physical contact between them. Seeing how the Slytherin seemed to be as confused as her, the witch turned around and ran out the Great Hall.

Hermione didn't go after Harry and Ron. No, she needed to be alone to think about what had just happened. It couldn't be right to feel good after kissing her enemy! So, why was she feeling so good? Why did she have a weird euphoria growing inside herself while she ran to her dormitory? Why was she almost dancing in happiness as she locked herself in her room? And, worst of all, why did she want to run after Riddle and kiss him again?

Letting herself fall on her bed, the Gryffindor took a deep breath, trying to calm down, and touched her lips with her fingertips, remembering the odd sensation she had felt when Tom kissed her… She shook her head, telling herself that she was going mad. Yes, that was the only explanation, Hermione Granger was going mad.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Riddle remained unmoving as he watched the Head Girl running away from him. The calmness he had felt for a few minutes was slowly starting to vanish and it made the boy start to worry about the fact someone may have been able to see what had just happened. Taking a deep breath and telling himself that no, he wasn't looking odd, Riddle looked around, noticing that no one had actually paid any attention to what happened between him and the Granger girl. He began running her, ignoring Slughorn, who was trying to wish him a Happy New Year.

The Slytherin went right into their dormitory, where he knew Hermione would be, but took some time to enter it due to the fact that the woman in the painting that guarded the entrance started to rant about how hurried and rude the Head Boy and Head Girl were that night. When he finally entered their common room, Tom saw the girl had already locked herself in her room.

"That was nothing. Nothing," he thought as he sat down on the couch and ran a hand through his hair, breathing deeply. The best thing he could do was to ignore the truth and, after a while, that truth would go away… And he would forget what had just happened on the first hour of 1945.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

******A/N: **Oh, they finally kissed, how sweet is that? Yeah, I don't like this chapter '-' Haha, I'm not a fan of my romantic scenes, because I always think they seem to be forced or cliché '-' I hate to describe kisses and couples being lovely to each other ("What in name of Merlin are you doing writing a romance fic!" I don't know D:) ... But... I like the kiss scene _in my head_, I don't know if I like it in the fic _'

**1- Tom and Hermione dancing:** I'm sorry, I had to put them dancing. You see, I love to dance... Like, saloon dancing, waltz, these kind of stuff (waltz is my favourite). When I turned 15, I had this birthday party (because here in Brazil it's tradition to do this big party when a girl turn 15, not 16 like in some other countries... so "sweet fifteen) and it's a tradition for the birthday girl to dance waltz with three people: her father, her godfather and her "prince". To dance this, I took dancing classes for like three months with my father, and one week with my godfather and my "prince"... I danced The Waltz of the Flowers with my dad, Harry Potter Waltz with my "prince" and Once Upon A Decmber, from Anastasia, with my godfather (and, no , my "prince" wasn't my boyfriend due to the fact that this author who speaks with you now never dated anyone *socially awkward*, it was a old friend of mine). Why am I telling all this stuff? To explain why this scene with Tom and Hermione dancing means so much to me. My godfather was really happy to dance with me, you see, because, since a accident when he was younger, he was a wheelchairer... We did a great dance, I think, and he loved it. Last year, my godfather passed away and the only thing my godmother told me when I finally saw her after what happened was "Thanks for dancing with him". So... yeah, translating and reading this scene again makes me remember my godfather. That's why I love it so much. (: sorry for the long explanation... blah. ( _aribh . livejournal . com / 30779 . html ? mode = reply _ I know it's all in portuguese, but... yeah, my godfather :) )

Well! Now, let me tell you guys something: you guys have been "by my side" since last year, and most of you saw when my life turned into a mess when I was admited into med school in last July...Remember I told you the university in which I was approved was in another city? So now I have to move to Palhoça, which is 4 hours from Curitiba (where I live). Tomorrow or sunday I'll be moving, so... I don't know when I'll be able to post again '-' My classes start on monday and... yeah, I hope I have time to post again soon :3

Well, thanks everyone who reviewed :3 ... and Thanks, **Shadow6116 **for beta reading this chapter.

So, what did you think? Reviews are always highly appreciated :)

**Ari.**


	20. The Grey Lady

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 20: The Grey Lady**

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******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The holiday was over. The students had come back to Hogwarts, and classes had started again. Harry and Ron soon started to complain about the classes while Hermione continued to endure their complaints. The boys also started to spend more time with the Quidditch team than with her, just like they used to do before the holiday break. And Hermione, once again, started to spend most of her time at the library, researching Rowena Ravenclaw and the important object that was turned into a Horcrux by Lord Voldemort. However, she had discovered nothing about it.

"Hi, Mione!" The witch raised her head and saw Minerva McGonagall approaching the table where she was studying at the library. "What are you looking for?"

"A silly thing that just caught my attention… I heard that each Hogwarts' founder had a object considered 'important'." Hermione smiled softly.

"Yeah, Gryffindor had his sword; Hufflepuff, her cup; Slytherin, a locket, if I'm not mistaken, and Ravenclaw, her diadem." The other student mentioned the last item with a dreamy voice. "If you asked me to choose one of them, I wouldn't think twice before taking the diadem!"

Hermione felt happiness filling her body. That was exactly what the needed! The diadem was the magical object from Ravenclaw! The same object Voldemort used to make a Horcrux!

"Why?"

"It's said that who wears the diadem becomes as smart as Rowena Ravenclaw," McGonagall said. "Wouldn't it be perfect?"

"Yes, it would be perfect… But, Minerva, where is this diadem now?"

The Gryffindor chaser looked at Hermione as if the other girl was mad.

"Mione, the diadem is called 'Ravenclaw's lost diadem' for a reason… No one knows where it is nowadays." McGonagall sighed heavily. "But I wish I knew where it is…"

All the happiness Hermione had felt a few minutes ago vanished. How did You-Know-Who managed to create a Horcrux with an object considered lost? How did he find it?

"Well, Hermione, I'm leaving now." Minerva smiled and waved goodbye. "Quidditch practice."

"Oh, of course. See you later."

The witch watched as her friend walked away and decided to leave the library as well. Her head was already hurting from reading too much and her eyes were starting to refuse to focus on the words on the pages. Sighing, the girl got up, put everything she needed into her bag and left the place, thinking about what she would do… Go to her dormitory and leave her heavy bag at her room, maybe take a look at Gryffindor Quidditch practice, and go down to the Great Hall for dinner…

"Good afternoon, Mr. Riddle." Right before she turned the corner on the corridor, Hermione heard a woman's voice speaking and stopped in her tracks. She knew that voice didn't belong to any student. It seemed too mature to belong to a teenager girl, too sad.

The witch walked in silence until she could see who was speaking. In the middle of the corridor stand Tom Riddle, his back facing her as he looked at a woman… Actually, the ghost of a woman. Hermione recognized her as being Ravenclaw's ghost, the Grey Lady, and couldn't help but stare. She had never noticed the ghost before, but now she could see that the Lady was really beautiful with her long hair reaching her hips and her elegant dress floating around her. Unfortunately, her beauty was almost ruined by the sad expression on her face and the blank way her eyes looked around.

"Hello, Ms. Ravenclaw. How's your day?" Wait, did Tom just call the Grey Lady 'Ms. Ravenclaw'?

"Very well, my dear." That was the first time the Gryffindor saw her smiling. "What are you doing here at this time? Shouldn't you be with your friends? I saw Mr. Malfoy and Mr. Black heading for the gardens a few minutes ago."

"I actually wished to talk to you, Ms. Ravenclaw."

"Oh?"

"I wanted to know if you could finish telling me that story, you know, that you were telling me a few days ago, before the holidays."

"Ah, that story." She seemed disappointed, but continued anyway. "Where did I stop?"

"You ran away, my lady." Hermione couldn't see Tom's face, but she was sure his eyes must've been sparkling with curiosity at the moment. "You took the diadem."

The diadem! Although the girl was afraid that the other two could find out she was eavesdropping, she didn't walk away. No, she couldn't… Not when the information about a Horcrux was right in front of her.

"Yes, I ran away and took my mother's diadem with me. When I arrived at my destination, a forest at Albania, I hid it in a hollow tree, in the hope that no one but me would find it," the woman explained. "But it didn't take long before my mother sent someone to look for me… A man who once had loved me, but he had a difficult temper, my dear, and, when I refused to go back with him, he ended up killing me… And then, killing himself right after."

"Then you came back to Hogwarts…"

"And so did he… You know him, Tom dear." The Grey Lady approached him, extending her arm and seeing her hand go right through his shoulder. Riddle flinched slightly as he felt the ghost's touch. "He haunts the Slytherin's dungeons now, dirtied with his own blood, and mine too."

"The Bloody Baron!" Hermione could hear the excitement in Tom's voice. "And where is the diadem now? What happened to it?"

"Well, it's still there, at the forest in Albania, right where I hid it years ago." The ghost smiled sadly before looking away from the boy and locking her gray eyes on Hermione. "Mr. Riddle, I believe the young lady over there wishes to speak with you."

She pointed at the girl who was now static, only staring at Tom, before floating away. The boy looked at the Gryffindor with irritation but didn't say anything, just turned around and walked away. The girl sighed while trying to understand what the Slytherin's behavior was supposed to mean… Was Riddle restraining himself from attacking her? Or was he afraid of talking to her? Was Tom disgusted by her? Disgusted by having kissed her?

Such thoughts disturbed the witch. Hermione didn't want to admit it to herself, but she wanted Tom's approval. She wanted him to kiss her again, she wanted him to accept her…

"Hermione, you're being stupid," she whispered to herself. "What happened… It was nothing. Nothing at all."

"What happened?"The girl jumped as she heard a voice talking to her and, when she turned around, saw Eileen Prince standing right behind herself. "Sorry! I couldn't help but hear you speaking…"

"It's… It's alright, Eileen."

"Were you talking about… you and Riddle at the New Year's party?" the Slytherin whispered the last part of her question. "I saw the two of you, but don't worry! I didn't tell anyone!"

The Gryffindor shivered as she heard what the other girl said. Until now, she hadn't thought about the possibility of someone seeing Tom and her kissing at the New Year's Eve party, but now that the future mother of Severus Snape had put her finger on the subject, Hermione started to worry about that detail.

"You… You saw us?"

"Yes, but don't be worried! Believe me, I didn't tell anyone!"

"Eileen, tell me you were the only one who saw that!"

"Yes, I believe I was the only one," the Slytherin spoke, appearing to be a little confused. "The others were too busy celebrating the New Year… But I thought that you would like to have people knowing you kissed Tom Riddle…"

"Why the bloody hell would I like to have people knowing that?"

"Well, Riddle is one of the most handsome boys at Hogwarts, and is also the most intelligent one," Prince spoke, blushing slightly. "There are a lot of girls who would like to kiss him once in their lives."

"I… I haven't noticed that."

"You didn't like Tom until a few days ago. That's why you never noticed how the others seem to enjoy his company," the Slytherin explained. "Alright, Gryffindors don't like him, but the rest of the students do, even though Tom can be a little too quiet."

Hermione felt a weird sensation at her stomach, as if the news about Tom Riddle's admirers had made her feel uncomfortable. Ignoring these feelings, the girl took a deep breath and spoke again.

"Did he ever date anyone?"

"He went out with a few girls, but he never had a girlfriend as far as I know," said Eileen. "I think he already took three or four girls to Hogsmeade, but that's all. So, as I said, I don't think Tom has ever had a girlfriend… I guess he's always too worried about other stuff, you know? Homework, tests, projects…"

So, Tom Riddle had never had a girlfriend and, apparently, had never kissed anyone before her… Well, that was indeed a surprise. Even she had already been romantically involved with someone; Viktor Krum, and had the delight to be pecked on the lips by the oh-so-famous Quidditch player. Hermione had to restrain herself from running to tell Harry and Ron about her new discovery, as it was obvious that her friends would love to hear something that could embarrass the Head Boy.

"Ahm, Eileen, I have to go now." The girl waved goodbye to the other. "See you later."

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

******A/N:** A boring and short chapter, but okay... Not much to talk about this one... Only, about Tom's relationships with other girls: I simply can't stand fics where Tom becomes some kind of Sirius Black from the 1940s, the kind of guy who goes out with every one and etc etc... I already told you how I imagine him being quiet and almost shy, I don't think he would enjoy going out with every single girl who wants to go out with him (and, believing he's as handsome as J.K describes him, I believe there were a lot of girls who wanted to be his girlfriend). So, I see him going out with a girl once in a while, just when they simply won't leave him alone... But that's it: he walks around with her a bit, take her to Hogsmead, buy a Butterbeer and done. (x I don't know... Tom seems to be the kind of guy who would leave a romantic relationship aside to take care of more important stuff (finishing Hogwarts, getting good marks at the NEWTs, organizing his death eaters, making horcrux, being a Dark Lord...).

I was going to update this chapter earlier this week, but ff. net kept not letting me edit the story, but now... here it is (:

I guess... that's it. Thanks everyone who reviews last chapter *-* I'm really glad you guys liked it, and thanks, **Shadow6116**, for editing the chapter. Hope you enjoyed this one, and I'm sorry for it to be such a boring little chapter (x Reviews, as always, are higly appreciated (:

**Ari.**


	21. Expecto Patronum

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 21: Expecto Patronum**

_"'And how do you conjure it?'_

_'With an incantation, which will work only if you are concentrating, with all your might, on a single, very happy memory.'"_

**Harry Potter and the Prisioner of Azkaban**

**.**

**************IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

A few days had passed since Hermione overheard Tom's conversation with the Grey Lady. She had already told Harry and Ron about the diadem and now the two boys were trying to approach Ravenclaw's ghost, but the woman seemed to ignore them all the time, a fact which made them start to get into a terrible mood.

Another thing that made the two Gryffindors become almost unbearable was the Gryffindor's Quidditch team's defeat in a game against Hufflepuff. Hermione was restraining herself from telling them to shut up; after all, her head was already filled with tons of stuff and Quidditch was not something she needed to be worried about at the moment.

"Can you two _stop_! ?"

"What? What are we doing! ?"

"What are you doing? Ron, since last weekend you and Harry won't stop complaining about that Quidditch game! Let the Hufflepuffs be happy with a victory!" The girl sighed. "We have more important things to think about now…"

"Yes, Hermione, let's think about how we're going to Albania to search for a lost diadem!" Harry whispered sarcastically. "I think you could ask for your friend's, Mr. Riddle, help! He may know how we can…"

"Harry!" the witch almost screamed, not believing in how rude her friend was being.

"Good morning." The three of them turned around to see Charlus and Dorea standing behind them. The couple was holding hands and staring at them with a nervous smile on their lips. "What's going on?"

"Nothing, Charlus," Hermione lied, not wanting to upset the couple. "Hi, Dorea."

The Slytherin smiled and whispered something that made her boyfriend laugh. The future Mr. and Mrs. Potter had started to date a year earlier and seemed to never be away from each other.

"Harry, if you're upset about the Quidditch… Don't be! Really, mate, it was only a game!" the young boy spoke, tapping his future grandson on the shoulder. "Hey, I have to go now… See you at Defense!"

"See?" Hermione pointed at the couple who was now walking in the Great Hall's door's direction. "Even Charlus isn't upset about the match."

"That's not an excuse, Mione," the red haired boy mumbled. "He's just like that because his brain's too busy thinking about his girlfriend!"

"Alright, I give up! You two can stay in that bad mood for as long as you want!" The witch sighed, getting up and taking her bag. "How about we go to Defense? The class has almost started."

The boys nodded, not wanting to go against their friend's will, and the trio walked to the classroom without exchanging a word. As they entered the room, the Gryffindors noticed that all the tables were gone and Merrythought was standing in front of the class, smiling at her students.

"Good morning," the woman spoke. "You can put your bags and books aside, I want you to take your wand only! Today we'll take a look at the Patronus charm. Can someone tell me what the Patronus charm is? Yes, Mr. Riddle?"

"It's a charm used to protect one from Dementors. It's like a guardian, and its form depends on the caster's personality."

"Good! Take ten points for Slytherin. What must one do to perform the charm?"

"It's necessary to think about a happy memory while you say the spell's incantation," Hermione answered quickly, making Tom turn his head to give her an annoyed look._ "Expecto Patronum."_

"Perfect. Ten points for Gryffindor. This is what we're going to practice today," said the teacher, smiling happily. "Remember that this charm is really advanced, so don't be nervous if you can't perform it perfectly… Now, you have the whole class to practice."

The classroom was quickly filled with whispers and tiny silver fogs coming out from the students' wands. Harry, Ron and Hermione kept talking to each other, pretending to be practicing, hesitant to perform a good Patronus without much difficulty.

"Think about a good thing, Tom." The three of them heard Merrythought speaking in the other corner of the room. "You're doing great, you just need to think about a good thing…"

"How is he going to think about a good thing if everything he does is bad?" Ron whispered.

"And you?" The teacher approached them, smiling. "Let me see how you're doing!" She looked at Hermione. "You first, darling."

The girl sighed nervously before holding her wand up and saying the charm's incantation. Instantly, a silver otter came out from her wand and floated around her, as if wanting to play. Merrythought smiled widely as she watched her student's Patronus.

"This is great! Class, look here, a perfect Patronus! Ten more points to Gryffindor! And you two…?"

Harry and Ron also managed to perform perfect Patronuses. Harry's elegant silver stag walked around the classroom before disappearing, followed by Ron's cheerful Terrier.

"Twenty more points to Gryffindor… Come on, darlings, I want to see everyone else producing great Patronus like these ones!"

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Think about a good thing, that was all he needed to do… But nothing good came to his mind! Tom thought about the day when he discovered he was a wizard. It didn't matter how many years it had been since Dumbledore entered in his room at the orphanage, the memory of that day was still fresh in his mind.

"_Expecto Patronum_!" the boy said, seeing a silver smoke coming out of his wand.

If that memory didn't work, maybe his first night at Hogwarts would do! He tried again, now remembering about how fascinated he was when he first entered the Great Hall, but nothing happened. The first time Slytherin won the House Cup, nothing. His first Christmas at Hogwarts… Even more frustration.

The Slytherin sighed, annoyed with himself. He then remembered the look of terror on his father's face on the night he was killed… Sometimes, it made him feel well, but, apparently, at the moment, this memory wouldn't work, as nothing, not even a tiny silver smoke, came from his wand.

"Think about a good thing, Tom." Riddle turned around to look at the teacher. "You're doing great, you just need to think about a good thing…"

_'That's what I'm trying to do!' _the boy thought as closed his eyes for a few seconds, trying to concentrate.

The Slytherin breathed deeply and looked at where Merrythought was standing, near Granger and her friends. To his surprise, Hermione had managed to perform a Patronus in the shape of an otter perfectly. The animal now was floating around the girl and, sometimes, it floated around her friends and the teacher.

As he watched the Gryffindor laughing at the playful otter, the boy saw the memories from the New Year's party coming back to his head. Hermione dancing with him, her hand holding his, his hand on her waist, her voice wishing him a "happy birthday", her lips on his, the peaceful feeling he felt while they kissed…

_"Expecto Patronum."_

To his own surprise, a silver snake emerged from the tip of his wand and floated in the air until it rested on his shoulders in the same way Nagini did. The other students noticed his success and approached him to see the spell, just like Merrythought.

"Great, Tom!" The teacher smiled. "Ten points to Slytherin."

The boy smiled, satisfied with himself, but still confused about the memory he used to produce the spell. Before he could think of anything else, Tom was surprised by the presence of Hermione's silver otter which had gotten away from her and now was floating near him.

And the small animal seemed to be entertained with his Patronus snake in the same way that the witch seemed to be entertained with him.

**************IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** Hey :D Easter's holiday start tomorrow but I decided to post this chapter now before I go to anatomy class {great, isn't it? Anatomy from 13:30 to 18:30 right before a holiday... I _love_ it _}. This chapter... well, I like it, even though it's kinda short. I had this idea of them practicing the Patronus since I wrote the scene of their first Defenses class, where Tom talks about the spell with Hermione, but this whole thing of Tom not being able to perform the charm before thinking about Hermione was my friend's, Sisi, idea :D So, this chapter goes to her {even though she's not reading it (x anyway, Sisi, if you by any chance read this, I miss you, okay? I hope you're enjoying your life as an exchange student *-* and we're waiting for you here in Brazil ^^} ... she was reading RR back in 2009 and she told me something like "Wow, you could make Tom not being able to perform the Patronus and he being all 'ugh, how can they do it and I can't?' when he sees the trio doing it right... then he thinks about Mione and he does it right!" ...so, yeps, this chapter is like that thanks to her :3

Again, I'm sorry it took me so long to post another chapter... I had my first row of tests here and, wow, it was scary D: Genetics, Embryology, Neuroanatomy, Anatomy tests and Life Support in two weeks {my best mark is in Embryo, and, my worst, in Neuro x_x}... but, whatever, it's much better studying for these subjects than studying for, I don't know, Maths, Portuguese, Geography {at least in my opinion (x }.

Ah, I have a drawing for this chapter, but it's old and weird...** arileli . deviantart . com / art / Patronus-143064887?q=boost%3Apopular%20by%3Aarileli%20patronus&qo=0 **I want to draw it again as soon as possible '-' It was done back in 2009.

and, before I go... this may sound weird, but here is the thing: in June, my family and I {and maybe a friend of mine} may be traveling to Ireland, England and Scotland, and, well, as I don't really know much about these coutries, I would like to know: do you guys know which places it would be interesting for us to visit? My mother asked me to make a list of places so we can organize the trip and I'm all "but I don't know! If I could, I would go everywhere!"... so, yeps, weird request, but it's because I don't know so much about these places and I would like to know where it would be nice to go (:

That's it... Thank you, **Shadow6116**, for beta reading the chapter :3 and thanks everyone who reviewed last chapter :D Hope you liked this one (:

**Ari.**


	22. The most dangerous thing

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 22: The most dangerous thing**

.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

The rest of the day passed by calmly. All the students who had been at Merrythought's class wouldn't stop talking about their Patronuses, even the ones who hadn't managed to produce more than silver smoke. Hermione was now at her Aritmancy class, sitting next to Minerva and trying to concentrate on the exercises the teacher had assigned.

"Done," said McGonagall, closing her book and putting her quill inside her bag. "Ahm…Hermione, may I ask you something?"

"Of course," Hermione answered without raising her eyes from her book.

"How did you, Harry and Ron manage to perform such perfect Patronuses?"

"We weren't the only ones, Minerva," said the Gryffindor, sighing as she gave up on doing the exercises and closed her book. "You performed a perfect one, and Charlus' was great too."

"But we only did it after trying a few times! Even Riddle produced a decent one after almost throwing something at the teacher's face… I must say I've never seen him so frustrated with a spell before! And he's the best student at Defense," her future teacher said. "But you three did it right in the first time!"

"Er… A friend of Harry's parents taught him how to produce a Patronus when he was younger," Hermione tried to explain. Well, it wasn't a total lie… "And, after that, Harry taught us how to do it."

Minerva stared at her for a moment from behind her glasses, but, before she could ask any other questions, the teacher announced the end of the class and the other students started to leave the classroom.

"Shall we go? Harry and Ron said they were going to wait for us outside the class." Hermione smiled and got up, followed by Minerva.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Tom had thought about what had happened in the Defense class for a long time. Everything that passed through his head since he left Merrythought's classroom was about his Patronus and Hermione Granger. Actually, the Gryffindor had already been in his head since the New Year's party, but until now, he had managed to suppress the memory of the kiss they shared… But the whole Patronus affair was enough to make every detail of that night appear in his mind again.

He didn't know what was happening to him. Never in his eighteen years of life had he felt the need to be near someone as he was feeling at the moment. Riddle was used to desiring to have certain things – and, of course, do anything to get what he wanted - but this necessity to have something had never been applied to a person.

He didn't know what made Hermione look attractive under his eyes… Compared to the rest of the girls at Hogwarts, the Gryffindor wasn't beautiful, and neither was she nice. She was just an annoying know-it-all with bushy hair that walked around the castle with her arms full of books. Maybe that was what caught Tom's attention… The fact that every time he saw Granger walking down the corridor with books in her arms and parchment coming out of her bag, an image of himself appeared in his head, and he was actually a little disturbed. The annoying know-it-all that lived more around books than around people. That was him. And that was also Hermione Granger.

Another thing that caught his attention was the girl's behavior towards him. It seemed to be impossible to affect her with words, and it didn't matter how many times he called her a "Mudblood" or was rude to her; if it was needed, she would be as gentle as possible with him. The night he dreamt about his father was proof of it. Hermione could have left him alone that night, but instead, she had chosen to comfort him… Speaking of that night, the Gryffindor hadn't broken her promise of not telling anyone about the two times she had found Tom in a shameful situation.

One thing was certain: something in Hermione Granger made Tom want to be near her. Riddle didn't know what stupid thing made him feel that way was, but he wanted to find out… And, of course, he wanted to discover how the girl felt towards him.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"'Night, Mione!" Ron waved her goodbye as she walked away from them, heading for the Heads' dorm.

Hermione smiled to the red haired boy before turning around. She had always liked Ron in a way that was more than friendship, but during their sixth year, after spending a awful lot of time crying over the fact that Ron Weasley was snogging Lavander Brown, those feelings she had towards him seemed to decrease a little. Not completely though; only enough to make her stand being in the same room as Ron and Lavander without attacking the other girl.

They had eventually split up, but, in her suspicious mind, Hermione still believed her friend was still in love with Brown. But then, the war started… And everything in their lives went mad. They didn't have time to think about love, about girlfriends and boyfriends, and her crush for Ron was substituted by her worry about her parents' life, her friend's life, her life.

When she saw Tom Riddle for the first time it was almost a shock. Harry had already told them about what Voldemort was like when he was young, but to see the younger version of the Dark Lord with her own eyes was a completely different thing. The boy was handsome, as her friend had told her, but there was always a perverse aura around him.

Hermione discovered that she admired Tom sometimes… She didn't know the reason for that admiration, but she felt it every time the Slytherin managed to answer a question before her or made someone shut up with only a stern look. The Gryffindor laughed quietly as she remembered her second year at Hogwarts, when Harry found Tom Riddle's diary… She had searched for all the information about the young Voldemort she could find and the girl still remembered at how impressed she was when she saw how perfect that mysterious boy seemed to be. He had great marks at his OWLs and was a Prefect… Everything Hermione wished she could achieve one day.

Leaving her admiration towards Riddle aside, what scared her the most was how she had reacted to their kiss on the New Year's party. The right thing to feel was disgust; after all, the most feared dark wizard of the world had kissed her… But the only thing she had felt was happiness! And since that day, Hermione couldn't stand near Tom Riddle without feeling her heart accelerating and her face growing hot… And she hated that.

"Good night, Granger." The girl felt a shiver run down her spine when she heard the Slytherin's calm voice when she entered the Head's dorm. Turning around, Hermione saw that Tom wasn't sitting on the couch as he usual, but standing a few meters away from her.

"Good night, Riddle." She observed the boy putting Nagini, who was coiled around his arm, aside before approaching her. "What do you want?"

Tom didn't answer. He only extended his hand and touched her face lightly. Hermione held her breath and took a step behind, but that wasn't enough to break their contact. She noticed that the boy seemed to be as confused as her with everything that was happening… Riddle was breathing with a certain difficulty just like her, and he actually had a soft blush spreading along his pale cheeks.

"Riddle, what do…?"

"Stop asking questions for at least a few minutes, please," he whispered and leaned in, closing his lips over hers.

It wasn't the same kiss from the New Year's Eve. This one was more urgent, feeling as if both of them believed it was going to solve all their problems, answer all their questions. Tom smiled as he felt the Hermione's fingers touching his hair while she kissed him with the same intensity as him.

Hermione felt Riddle's arms circling her waist and, just like when they danced at the New Year's party, she felt safe, as if the boy wouldn't let anything happen to her…

_'He is the only bad thing that can happen right now.'_

It was only after some time that Tom backed away a little and stared at her. His cheeks were unusually red and his eyes seemed to be unfocused as he looked at her.

"R-Riddle…?"

The boy shook his head and kissed her again, this time softly and quickly, before turning around and walking away as if nothing had happened.

"Good night, Granger."

Leaving behind a confused Hermione, Riddle closed his room's door and an insistent smile appeared on his lips.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

**A/N:** This chapter... ugh, I remember how difficult it was for me to write it in portuguese and it was as difficult to translate it. Just so you know: when you write Tom Riddle being confused, it makes you really confused XD I wanted to show how the two of them are feeling at this moment of the story... I hope I did it well '-' Tom was certainly the most difficult one to write in this chapter, but Hermione was a bit difficult too.

Ah, I wanted to tell you guys that this weekend I changed some stuff on the first chapters of the fic and sent them to Shadow6116 who kindly beta read them for me (: So, now they're much better and... they have quotation marks! Remember that I had a difficult time to start using those? So, after hearing a few people complaining about it, I changed the first chapters, which were still using the traces to mark dialogues. There are also a few different things in some chapters {some POV's changes and one or two new scenes}, so, if you want to take a look at them ... (:

Well, thanks everyone who left a review on the last chapter... Especially **Yastata** who's also reading the new version of it in portuguese 8D I already told you this during the whole afternoon on Tumblr, but your reviews made my day :D and, again, thanks, **Shadow6116**, for beta reading the chapter and getting rid of my stupid mistakes (: Ah, a random information here: today, the portuguese version of RR {the one posted on Nyah ! Fanfiction} achieved its 900th review *-* I know there are many fics with much more reviews, but, wow, I never thought I would get so many reviews in a story that I almost thought about deleting when I started posting (: so, thanks everyone who left a review in this version of the story {even though I believe you guys are not reading this... thank you}

I hope you enjoy this chapter and, as always, reviews are highly appreciated (:

**Ari.**


	23. Trust

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 23: Trust  
**

**.**

_"For in dreams, we enter a world that is entirely our own. Let him swim in the deepest ocean or glide over the highest cloud."_

- Albus Dumbledore**  
**

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

_He didn't recognize the place he was standing in at first. It was only after a few minutes of looking around that Tom noticed he actually knew the well-decorated guest room where he was in... He recognized the couches around the fireplace, the windows where he could see the the village through, the piano in the corner of the room... Even though the last time he had been in that place it was dark and his thoughts were clouded by anxiety, he could remember it._

_"It's a nice house, don't you think?" The boy heard someone speaking from behind himself and turned around to see who it was. "My mother always said she loved living here..."_

_"You...!"_

_"Me." The man sitting in one of the couches laughed._

_"You're dead..." Riddle whispered, taking a step back. "I..."_

_"You killed me." The man smiled._

_"Then how are you...?"_

_"The last time you saw me, how was it?"_

_"It was a dream..."_

_"There's your answer."_

_Tom looked at the Muggle for a few minutes, not understanding what was happening. He was dreaming, of course, but why, in the name of Merlin, was he dreaming about his father again? He hadn't dreamt about Tom Riddle Sr. since he was a child – well, except for his nightmare a few nights before. Back then, those dreams were comforting, a short moment in which he could forget he lived in an orphanage and imagine he had a family... But time passed by and the comfort vanished, just like the dreams._

_"Why am I here?"_

_"Good question," the Muggle spoke with a distant tone in his voice while he moved his fingers through the air, as if touching something._

_"Why are you here?"_

_"Because you want me to."_

_"No, I don't."_

_"Yes, you do," said Tom Sr., turning his head to look at his son once again. "The dream is yours, it's your head that is making it all up."_

_The wizard looked around once again, before fixing his gaze at the man. It was odd to see his father like that... The only time he had seem the man in reality was in the night he killed the other, and, at the time, Tom Riddle Sr. was a mess of despair, sadness and tears, not the calm man who kept smiling right in front of him._

_"What's her name?"_

_"What?"_

_"The girl who gave you the Calming Potion the last time we saw each other," the older Riddle asked._

_"Hermione."_

_"It's an interesting name," the man said. "So, what do you think about her?"_

_"What?"_

_"I asked what you think of her."_

_"Nothing! I mean... Nothing."_

_The Muggle looked at him, analyzing him with his pale blue eyes, before getting up and standing next to his son. The boy seemed to be uncomfortable with the small distance between them, but remained silent while the other looked outside the window, narrowing his eyes as the sunlight hit his face._

_"You don't trust people, am I right? You're afraid they'll let you down, that,if you give them your trust, you'll be more vulnerable..." Tom Sr. whispered, his voice, once again, sounding distant. "But, sometimes, you need to trust someone."_

_"What are you talking about? I mean... That makes no sense."_

_"Of course it makes sense." The man laughed. "Actually, what I want you to understand is that... It's not going to kill you to trust the girl, Hermione... Didn't she already prove to be trustworthy?"_

_Tom Jr. opened his mouth to answer, but closed it quickly when he remembered the day when, back at the orpahanage, Hermione had fixed his broken nose, and then the night when he woke up practically having a panic attack after his nightmare. On both occasions, Hermione Granger had helped him and, afterwards, didn't say a word about what happened... She didn't gloat on how weak he was to let a Muggle beat him, nor on how pathetic he looked when he was scared of a dream._

_"She did." The man's voice echoed around the room. "Trust her, she's worth gaining your trust."_

_The wizard narrowed his eyes, looking at the small village near the house where they were and trying to understand what his mind wanted from him... Why did he get stuck in a dream with his father, of all the people, who he pratically had never met?_

_"Why you?"_

_"Hum?"_

_"Why is it you in my dream? Why isn't it, oh, I don't know, Mrs. Cole, Martha or even professor Dumbledore?"_

_The Muggle stayed in silence for a few minutes, just looking outside, before smiling and finally speaking: "In life, I had a friend who used to say I was good at understanding people." He looked at the boy next to him. "Maybe that's the reason?"_

_"You're odd." The younger Riddle laughed quietly._

_"What did you expect from me? A boring, ordinary Muggle?"_

_"Yes."_

_They both stayed in silence, only looking through the window and listening to the quiet sounds of birds singing outside. As much as he didn't want to admit it, Tom quite liked that place... The house felt familiar to him, made him feel calm._

_"Hermione truly is an interesting name," Tom Sr. whispered, and that was the last thing his son heard from him before seeing the guest room around him disappear._

When Tom Riddle woke up, he didn't know if he was going mad or not. Having weird dreams was one thing, having weird dreams where he was casually talking with his father was a completly different one... He had never talked to the man before, nor had he wished to do so, but the boy had to admit that it had been an, at least, curious experience... Disturbing, yes, but curious.

But, aside from the strange reaction from his mind, the boy couldn't help but think about what his father had said... In the last few days, Tom had been very confused. He didn't know what he felt towards Hermione Granger – admiration? Yes; after all, she was a great witch – and he also fought to keep his mind from constantly thinking about the Gryffindor girl, even if it was just to notice how incorrect an answer she had given to a teacher was.

But, even though Riddle was, indeed, interested in the witch, he didn't want anyone to notice that... His dream was right: to give someone your trust meant that you were ready to confide in them something important. They could destroy him much faster if he trusted them... Maybe that was the reason he didn't trust any of his classmates; the fear he had of being stabbed from behind. Not that it mattered to him; he had never been particularly bothered by the fact he didn't trust anyone and wasn't trusted by any of his colleagues... He had grown up like that, without trust for others and trust from others; it was normal for him.

But he couldn't help to wonder what would happen if...

"Stop that," he whispered to himself, sitting on his bed and rubbing his face. "Stop being stupid, it was just a silly and useless dream about a disgusting Muggle talking nonsense."

The Slytherin looked at his watch and noticed it was almost time for him to get up and get ready for the Saturday that was starting... Well, maybe if he spent the whole day studying, then every last thought of Hermione Granger would be wiped away from his mind... Hopefully.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione sighed, putting a book back in its right place in the bookshelf, before letting herself to lean against it. Harry and Ron were waiting for her at the entrance of the library while she organized the books they had borrowed for research in a Potion's project.

"I really am not in mood to stand his non-stop talking this evening," a familiar voice said from behind the bookshelf.

"I don't think any of us want to do so, my friend."

"As long as he doesn't decide to punish us for something stupid, it's alright for me."

"Everything is alright for you, Abraxas." Someone laughed. "But I guess you're right... The last thing I need is a Cruciatus."

The girl took a deep breath, deciding it would be much better for her to walk away and not risk being found by Malfoy, Lestrange and Avery, not after their last encounter. Putting one last book into the bookshelf and ignoring the Slytherins' voices, Hermione turned around and walked away, wondering if Riddle knew what his friends said about him behind his back.

"Hey, Mione." She smiled as she caught sight of her friends, who were now in the company of Minerva McGonagall.

"Hello, Minerva."

"So, I was talking with Harry and Ron... and we were wondering if you, by any chance, wanted to go for a quick stroll through Hogsmeade?"

"Well."The witch smiled. "Seeing as we already finished our Potions project and my homework is already done... I guess it's a good idea."

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

******A/N: **Hey :D So, I finally updated it... I hope you like this chapter, it has nothing from the original one in portuguese.

******1- Tom Riddle Sr: **I'm sorry, I just had to make more scenes with this man in RR ): I love his character so much and I wanted to show a little bit more of him, more than the freaking scared Tom Sr. from the night his son killed him.{ah, yeah, I started to translate a fic about Tom Sr... it's pretty short, but I love it}.

******2- The dream: **did you know that you, when you dream, you're in a kind of sleep called REM sleep (rapid eye movement sleep)? It's in this kind of sleep that the memory is formed and it occurs during about 90-120 minutes of a night's sleep... also, during a dream you'll always see stuff from your life/day. Whatever, I don't know what I wanted to say with these stuff... {btw, I like to write Tom having these really odd dreams}. Sorry if there is any thing wrong about the REM sleep, my neuroanatomy teacher told us some stuff about it last semester, but it's in this next semester that we'll learn more about it in physiology.

Anyway, what did you think of DH part 2? I've watched it twice until now... The first time, at the midnight showing, I cried like a little child during the movie D: By the end of the movie, I didn't know if I should watch the Epilogue or if I should try to calm my friend down, because she was crying and sobbing by my side... but it was nice :3 I liked the movie, even though they changed a lot of stuff. Also, I went to the midnight showing cosplaying Tom Riddle :D if you want to take a look on how it turned out, the photos are on my deviantART { **arileli . deviantart . com** }...

Well, I hope you liked this chapter (: I liked how it turned out in this new version... So, as always, reviews are very very welcome :)

And thanks, **Shadow6116**, for beta reading, and everyone who left a review in the previous chapter... I'm sorry it took me so long to update, but I hope you like this one.

******Ari.  
**


	24. Keeping the evil away

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 24: Keeping the evil away  
**

**.**

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hogsmeade, as always, was full of young witches and wizards who used the trips to the village during the weekends as a way to try to forget, even if just for a couple of hours, their duties as Hogwarts students. But Hermione, even among the other students who were at the village, couldn't help but use this trip as a way to get more information in a specific matter of importance to her.

After leaving Harry, Ron and Minerva at the Three Broomsticks, the girl headed to Tomes & Scrolls, a small bookshop that sold both wizarding and Muggle books – the same place where, if she remembered correctly, Riddle had bought her Christmas gift -, hoping that she would find something there that could help her to understand the extent of the damage in their time-turner. She couldn't help it... She had to go after something, research a way for them to go back home or at least know if the chances of them being stuck in 1945 were as high as she thought they were.

So there she was, standing between the dust covered bookshelves, trying to find anything – a book, a roll of parchment, an old edition of the Daily Prophet – that could help her with the time-turner problem.

The girl sighed as she looked up and scratched her nose, trying to get rid of the itching sensation all the dust was giving her. Her eyes ran across the titles of the books and her frustation grew... It was impossible that nothing inside that store was about time turners! Those objects were so curious and could be so useful sometimes, so why, in the name of Merlin, weren't there any books on them?

Actually, she knew the reason very well... The Ministry had always tried to hide time-turners, making them seem to be almost legendary objects. After all, if one got their hands on a time-turner, they would be able to control time and who knew what someone could do with such power? As Professor Dumbledore once told them, time was a mysterious, powerful thing and, when medded with, could be a great danger.

"He was right," she whispered to herself as she leaned agains the bookshelf and sighed, remembering how such a small and delicate object managed to turn her life upside-down.

Looking up once again, after finally deciding that it would be more useful to search for information on time-turners in Hogwarts, the witch's eyes widened and a smile appeared on her lips when her eyes found a blue book with tiny silver letters forming its title: "_Magical Objects and Their Uses_."

Hermione, still smiling, approached the bookshelf in front of her and raised her hand, trying to reach the book. Sighing as she noticed it was too high for her, the girl stood on her tip-toes and laughed quietly as the tip of her fingers touched the book... Before she lost her balance and fell, almost bringing the books on the bookshelf with her.

"Merlin's beard!" The Gryffindor heard a voice and, before she could see who the speaker was, a hand was grabbing her arm and helping her stand up. "Blimey, are you alright?"

"Yes," she said, raising her head and seeing a red haired boy looking at her. He resembled Ron, but, at the same time, she could see a few differences between them, such as brown eyes instead of Ron's blue.

"Are you sure? I thought you were be buried under those books." He pointed at the books that were on the floor.

" Yes, but no need to be worried," the girl explained and looked at her hand, seeing _Magical Objects and Their Uses_ firmly in her grip. At least she had gotten the book she wanted.

"At least you got what you wanted, I guess," the wizard said, laughing. "By the way, I saw your friends in the Three Broomsticks..."

"Oh, yes, they stayed there while I came here to... well, buy this thing here." She raised her hand, showing the book.

"That was the first time I saw a girl almost get herself killed just for a book." He laughed. "By the way, I think you don't remember me... Septimus Weasley, I play with Harry in the Quidditch team."

"Oh." Hermione gave him a weak smile. "You're a... Chaser?"

"No, beater," said Septimus. "The chasers are Minerva, Charlus and James."

"Hm." She had no idea of who this 'James' was, but smiled anyway. "I'm not the brightest person when it comes to Quidditch, you see."

"But only when it comes to Quidditch." The red haired boy laughed. "I heard you're almost taking Riddle out of his position as best student of Hogwarts."

Hermione couldn't help but laugh. "Come on, you're exagerating..." The Gryffindor spoke and looked up to the other, finding it strange that Septimus wasn't laughing along with her. In fact, the boy's expression was now quite serious.

"Good afternoon, Weasley." She turned her head only to see Tom Riddle standing a few meters from them. His face, as always, was unexpressive and his eyes were fixated on Septimus. "Miss Granger..."

"Hello, Riddle," she said.

"Hey, Hermione, I guess I..." the red haired wizard started speaking, looking away from the Slytherin. "I guess I'll go get something from the Three Broomsticks, so... See you later."

"Alright... Hey, Septimus?" The boy stoped walking and turned around. "Can you tell Harry and Ron I'll be going back to the castle? I'm a little tired, so I guess I'll leave the butterbeer for another time."

"Of course." Septmus smiled and left.

As soon as Weasley was out of the store, Hermione didn't hesitate in turning around and shooting an annoyed look in Riddle's direction. The young man simply gave her a tiny fake smile, before she sighed and walked away from him, heading to the counter with an old wizard standing behind it.

"Why in such as hurry, Ms. Granger?" She heard Tom say in a mocking tone.

"There's something bothering me, so I guess I need to go back to Hogwarts to see if it goes away," she answered, giving a few galleons to the shop keeper.

The Slytherin said nothing as he watched the girl grab the book she had just bought and leave the bookshop.

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione Granger knew that going back to the castle wouldn't really work; after all, even though she had been living with him for only a few months, the girl knew how stubborn Tom Riddle could be... So, giving the circunstances, the Gryffindor wasn't surprised when she heard the Head Boy's voice calling her as she walked down a corridor in the first floor of the castle.

"It would really amuse me to know the reason for your horrible mood, Miss Granger." The girl stopped walking and turned around. If looks could kill, Tom would be already dead.

"Why did you scare Septimus away?"

"I didn't do anything." He shrugged. "It's not my fault he's a coward..."

"He is _not_!"

"Oh, yes, I'm sorry, he's a Gryffindor." The boy rolled his eyes, "And everyone inside that house is so full of bravery, I always forget that."

"Riddle, be quiet, please! Spare me your stupid thoughts." The witch sighed. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm really insterested in going back to my room and doing something useful."

"You know what, Granger?" Riddle's voice finally lost its tone of mockery. "I believe you're actually interested in my stupid thoughts."

The girl kept walking, ignoring the numerous paintings that peeked from their frames, trying to catch up with their argument. A few of them even giggled and whispered between themselves. Hermione sighed, asking herself if those paintings didn't have anything better to do with their lives, and continued walking... Until she felt an odd sensation, as if someone there was someone watching her.

"Riddle!" Hermione screamed, turning around and seeing Riddle with a smug smile on his face. "Don't you dare to look into my mind!" She walked up to him, pointing her finger to his face. "Do you hear me? Don't you dare!"

"I don't think I would manage to do so even if I tried again, Ms. Granger," he whispered. "You have a strong mind, always prepared in case someone tries to peek inside it..." Tom's eyes narrowed as he looked at her. "What are you so afraid of? Who do you try to keep away from your thoughts?"

"That's none of your business, Riddle," she hissed.

"I guess it is," he said, putting his hand on her shoulder and holding her in place.

Hermione's eyes widened as she watched Tom's face. Once again, his serious expression seemed to soften a little as he watched her, and his eyes seemed to be confused again and... Why the hell was he so close to her? He really was much too close for her liking and he kept getting even closer...

A loud smacking sound echoed through the corridor, followed by a loud "Merlin's beard!" coming from the Head Boy, who covered the left side of his face with his hand, feeling the skin on his cheek burning and stinging as he watched the Gryffindor girl walk quickly away from him.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

******A/N: ** For Merlin's sake, Tom, you just don't go aroung invading girls' minds. You should kow that, my dear.

Well, yeah, not much to say about this chapter... only that this last scene with Hermione slapping Tom was done for a friend, Sisi, who said something like "Hermione shouldn't let Riddle kiss her every time he feels like doing it... she should stand against him!", so here is Hermione, slapping Voldemort away from her.

Anyway, thank you very much everyone who left reviews on the previous chapter :3 and I hope you enjoyed this one. As always, reviews are great, you guys knwo that. (: and thanks Shadow6116, for beta reading it.

**Ari.**


	25. Undertow eyes

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 25: Undertow Eyes  
**

**.**

_"Undertow eyes? Why not? Undertow. That's the notion that the new expression put in my head. They held some kind of mysterious, active fluid, a force that dragged one in, like the undertow of a wave retreating from the shore on stormy days."_

**- Dom Casmurro**_  
_

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"Now, that's what a call a slap."

Tom Riddle turned around, ignoring his aching cheek, to see a man's painting. The man had dark, curly hair, wore a black top hat and was laughing at him. The boy shook his head, not believing what had just happened... Hermione Granger had slapped him. He had no idea where her strength had come from, but there was enough to make it _hurt_.

"By the way, thank you, my boy, for making my day a little bit more interesting," the man in the painting said, still laughing.

"_Shut up_."

"Ooo, now he's irritated!"

"Oh, leave him alone, you grumpy old man." Tom looked around to see who was speaking this time and found himself staring at a painting of a couple. The girl had dark long hair and was standing on a balcony, leaning against the railing, while the boy, who had blond hair and bright blue eyes, was trying to climb onto the balcony. "Ignore him, he's always like that."

"Why don't you go back to your lover, girl? I'm sure he's eager to hear your vows of true love."

"Well, I'm sorry if I have someone who loves me and...!"

"Don't talk to her like that!" This time it was the boy who spoke.

"I will talk to anyone with the tone of voice of my choice, thank you very much!"

"For Merlin's sake, be _quiet_!"

The paintings fell into silence while Tom watched them, annoyed. He heard a small giggle and saw another painting showing another couple. This one had a blonde woman wearing ancient Greek clothing and a man, who was also blonde, standing behind her. A pair of white wings coming from the man's back seemed to be embracing both of them.

"Oh, please, ignore us." The woman chuckled, hiding her mouth behind her hand.

"You're not really good with girls, right, young man?" The blonde man asked, laughing. "You have to be gentle with them, not abrupt and rude as you were with that young lady..."

"And who said I wanted something with her?" Tom asked, suddenly starting to feel uncomfortable.

"Didn't you?" Again, the girl from the balcony asked. "I thought you wanted to snog her... You seemed to want that."

"Well, you're wrong."

"It would be much more interesting if you did want to..."

"I don't think so." Tom shrugged. "Not everyone's life revolves around romance."

"They should, if you want to know my opinion," the girl whispered, letting her hand reach for the boy's, who was still climbing her balcony. "The world would be a better place if people were more romantic."

"I don't think so," said Riddle. "Look where romance led you."

"What do you mean?"

The wizard smiled smugly before walking towards the painting. The girl now had a serious expression on her beautiful face, while the boy seemed to be torn between choosing to look at his lover or at the stranger who was talking to them.

"Romeo and Juliet." Tom let his fingers touch the faces of the couple. "What did love do to both of you? It led you into a coffin."

"It... Well..." The girl, Juliet, now seemed to be uncomfortable. "That was just a consequence."

"A pretty important consequence, don't you think? After all, if you haven't been so foolish to fall in love with your enemy, you wouldn't be dead by the end of the story."

"We don't choose who we fall in love with, boy." He turned around to see the blonde man from the other painting talking. "It's not something we can control..."

"You can say that, right?" The wizard laughed. "The god who fell in love with the mortal. Eros and Psyche... Have any of you noticed that the only use love had for your lives was to make it harder for you?"

"Stop..."

"Stop what, my dear Juliet? Stop saying the truth? But that's how it is: love is not that beautiful thing you believe it is! Love is a... a _stupid_ feeling that makes people lose their minds and act like idiots! It's... It's a useless thing that can ruin and even end our lives."

The paintings remained in silence, only staring at the wizard who, at that point, was almost yelling at them. It was a good thing, Tom thought, that the corridor was empty, occupied only by him and the people inside the paintings, otherwise the other students that may have been there would think he was mad.

"For someone who thinks so badly of love," a sweet, calm voice spoke. "You know a lot about the feeling."

Riddle was ready to reply rudely, but stopped when he saw who was speaking to him. It was, as he had imagined, another painting, but it was different from the others; he didn't know who the couple in it was. The boy had dark, curly hair and dark brown eyes, kind eyes... He was an average teenager, with nothing special about his innocent appearance. It was the girl who caught his attention. She also had dark curly hair which kept falling over her face, and a mischievous smile on her lips. But her eyes... it was her eyes which got most of his attention: Tom couldn't tell which color they were, a mixture of green and blue maybe, and there was something about them that made the wizard feel uncomfortable and enchanted at the same time. It was as if her eyes were talking to him, _mocking_ him.

"I don't know what you are talking about."

"I think you do know, my dear." She laughed, lowering her head, but still looking at him. "You do like that girl, don't you?"

"No."

"The way you were speaking to her tells me otherwise," she said. "The way you're talking to me right now is also telling me the opposite."

Riddle locked his eyes onto hers, trying to understand what she was trying to do with him. Again, those eyes seemed to be trying to persuade him, convince him to say something... Dragging him in.

"Why do you fear love? It's a beautiful feeling." She looked away from him, now turning to observe the boy at her side. "It may be cruel, some times... But during the period in which it is nice to you, it's the most beautiful thing in the world."

"I do not fear it," he whispered. "I just think it's stupid and useless, a waste of time."

"Stop making up excuses."

"I'm not...!"

"If you want to know what I think," Once again, the man who had mocked Tom after Hermione slapped him spoke. "The boy is right: love is useless."

"Oh, please!" The girl shook her head. "You just say that because you were unfortunate in love."

"You'd know a lot about that, right, _darling_?" The man narrowed his eyes.

"Of course." She smiled before turning to Riddle once again. "Now, where was I? Oh, yes... Stop running away from your emotions. Not only love, but every emotion you have inside yourself. Stop trying to hide them, stop trying to get rid of them... Believe me, it wouldn't hurt to let yourself feel something."

"Yes, but you can't feel something that doesn't exist," said Tom. "Emotions are not like... Cold, heat, pain... You can actually feel these things, but love? You can't! It's not something that... That you _know_ it exists!"

The girl giggled. "You don't even know what love is, you poor thing."

"I know what it is, and I already told you: something useless."

"No, it's not." She sighed. "Well, I'm not going to keep you here, I believe you must go somewhere to take care of your..." She pointed at her own cheek. "Your face... It's very red, does it still hurt?"

Riddle rolled his eyes and didn't answer. Looking one last time at the girl, who was still looking at him with those odd eyes, the young wizard turned around, ignoring the whispers from the other paintings. He could still hear the protests from Romeo, who kept saying things like "the idiot doesn't know what he's missing", or the sighs from Psyche... The only thing he wanted to do at the moment was to get away from that damned corridor full of paintings of couples. It was disturbing! Why would someone put so many romantic fans in only one corridor?

"Before you go!" The boy sighed, listening, once again, to the voice of the man who, he had noticed, was the only single portrait there. "Listen to my meaning of love, young man: love is selfishness, only it is duplicated!"

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

Hermione sighed as she sat down on the couch of the Heads' common room and put her recently acquired book down on the table in front of her. When she bought _Magical Objects and Their Uses_, she had been excited about reading it, even though she knew the chances of her finding anything useful about time-turners were really small, but now, after her recent argument with Tom, the girl simply couldn't concentrate on reading, for her mind kept wandering back to the Slytherin boy whose face must be red and hurting thanks to her.

"He deserved it," she whispered to herself. "Stop feeling bad about that."

The Gryffindor's head snapped up when she heard the dormitory's door opening and she saw Riddle entering the room. The boy was quiet as he went to his room, but, as soon as he reached the door, Tom stopped and turned to her.

"Granger?"

"What is it now?" The witch said, watching as the Slytherin approached and sat down next her, but kept a good distance between their bodies.

"You're a girl," he said, looking at his own hands and furrowing his brows.

"Oh, well, thank Merlin you noticed that." She rolled her eyes, sighing.

"Then, answer me this," Tom whispered, finally looking up and locking his blue eyes with Hermione's brown ones. "What is love?"

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

******A/N: **I love this chapter so much. It's mad, but I love it.

**1- The portraits:** as you must have noticed, this "corridor" at Hogwarts is a place where I imagined there would be paintings of famous couples. I only showed three of them in there, but I like to believe there are more. So, the couples:

**a) Romeo and Juliet:** the first painting, the "most beautiful love story of all time", also the most tragic one... It show exactly what Tom feels about emotions, I think, that they can lead you to your destruction. Romeo and Juliet fell in love and this love made them act carelessly and, in the end, they ended up dead.

**b) Eros and Psyche:** I read their story when I was younger for school and fell in love with it. Again, I think it may show how love can make a person's live complicated... Like how it did with Eros and Psyche. `-`

**c) The unkown couple:** the third couple is my favourite... Tom doesn't recognize them and, when I fisrt posted this fic in portuguese, I didn't tell the readers right away about who they were, I asked them if they had any idea... I got a lot of guessing (they even said Cinderella and her prince), but none got it correct... Which is funny because this couple is REALLY well known in the brazilian literature. We're talking about Bentinho and Capitu from Machado de Assis' _**Dom Casmurro**_. I'll give you a quick explanation of the plot: Bento (Bentinho) and Capitolina (Capitu) had always been friends, and he fell in love for her... but they can't be together because his mother made a promise that she would put him in a seminary when he got older. A lot of stuff happens and Bentinho finds a way not to become a priest as his mother had promised, so he can go back to Capitu... Blah, I don't want to spoil the story for you, but I can't explain without spoiling it x_x So,** if you don't wanna know, don't read past this:** Bentinho, when he was still in the seminary, becomes friends with a boy called Escobar. Even after they both left the seminary, they were still friends... Bentinho married Capitu and Escobar married Capitu's friend, Sancha. Sancha and Capitu have kids {Sancha's little girl is called Capitolina, and Capitu's little boy is called Ezequiel, a tribute to Escobar, whose name is Ezequiel de Sousa Escobar} and they are all happy... until the day Escobar {Bento's friend} dies, drowned while swiming in the sea. During his funeral, Capitu was comforting Sancha and being watched by her husband... and he saw her staring intensely to Escobar's body and shedding a tear. From this moment on, Bentinho is convinced Capitu had been cheating on him with Escobar... and the rest of the book is about it. It's great because you notice small details that can have a huge meaning in the story... The best thing is that you never know if she really cheated on him or not, the only person who knew it was the author who is dead for years now... The writing is great, the descriptions are beautiful and it is really worth reading if you can find a good translation of it... So, yeah, the couple is young Bentinho and Capitu.

**d) The solitary man:** if the unknown couple is young Bentinho and Capitu, the old and grumpy man is the older version of Bento, the man known as Dom Casmurro due to the fact he is arrogant and grumpy.

**2- _"Again, those eyes seemed to be trying to persuade him, convince him to say something... Dragging him in."_:** I went by the description of Capitu's eyes from the book. Everything in the book revolves around her eyes... They are said to be really exquisite and beautiful, manipulative... The exact quote is here:

_"Lovers' language, give me an exact and poetic comparison to say what those eyes of Capitu were like. No image comes to mind that doesn't offend against the rules of good style, to say what they were and what they did to me. Undertow eyes? Why not? Undertow. That's the notion that the new expression put in my head. They held some kind of mysterious, active fluid, a force that dragged one in, like the undertow of a wave retreating from the shore on stormy days. So as not to be dragged in, I held on to anything around them, her ears, her arms, her hair, spread about her shoulders; but as soon as I returned to the pupils of her eyes again, the wave emerging from them grew towards me, deep and dark, threatening to envelop me, draw me in and swallow me up."_

I have a friend who says the "undertow eyes" are the greatest comparison she has ever read in a book... Because it's not obvious but at the same time it is effective. Her eyes are important for one to understand her personality {she is, accourding to my literature teacher, the most complex character from the brazilian literature}... She's inteligent and persuasive, she can seem to be sweet and inocent, but when something goes against her will, she gets annoyed and drops that sweet mask of hers. Another thing that is interesting about the book is that when Escobar dies, the sea is in the undertow period {is that how you say it in english? in portuguese we say that the sea is in undertow/ está de maré alta}... The waves dragged him as Capitu's eyes dragged people into them.

It's also said her eyes are of "******a gypsy, oblique and sly**."

**3- But why did you put all this stuff about Dom Casmurro? It makes no sense!:** Well... I put Capitu and Bentinho in there because I love them way too much, but also because Capitu's character reminds me a lot of young Tom Riddle. Both of them are inteligent, charming, persuasive and cunning {she would be a great Slytherin}... A lot of times, during this fic, I described Tom's eyes as I described Capitu's in this chapter:

_"She felt as if his cold blue eyes were trying to convince her to talk, dragging her in so he could discover what was going on inside her mind."_ {chapter 3}

This is only one example because I can't remember where I put the other descriptions, but I'm sure there are more of them... Anyway, I had a class about Dom Casmurro and ended up thinking that, yes, my Tom and Capitu have a lot in common, so why don't I try to put them together in a scene and see how it works? Yeah.

**4- _" Love is selfishness, only it is duplicated."_:** _"Amor é egoísmo duplicado."._.. this is a quote from Dom Casmurro's author, Machado de Assis.

**5- _"Granger? You're a girl."_ :** I bet Hermione wants to slap everyone who says that to her.

I like this chapter and I hope you guys liked it too :3 I leave today with a few recomendations {all about Dom Casmurro, but okay}:

- The book, Dom Casmurro by Machado de Assis.

- The miniseries, Capitu, that was on the brazilians TVs about two years ago, which can be found on youtube {I swear I once found it with English subtitles, but now I can't find it D: anyway, I have the DVDs which have the subtitles and I'll try to upload it to youtube... but if you want just to take a look at its visual, search for "_Capitu , globo_ " ... this, in my opinion, is the most beaufitul scene of it: **youtube . com / watch?v=-AB6m7PtCkk&feature=related }**

- A song about Capitu's character, it's called, well, Capitu and is sung by Ná Ozetti. {the english lyrics can be found here: **aribh . livejournal . com / 39080 . html?mode=reply** ignore the fact they are horrible, I didn't have much time to translate it.}.

Also, an illustration: **arileli . deviantart . com / gallery / # / d425ioe** {Tom and Capitu :3}.

Thanks everyone who left a review on last chapter and to Shaddow6116, for beta reading it. As I said, I hope you enjoyed it :3 Tell me what you think, please...

**Ari.**


	26. What is love?

**Riddle's Riddles**

**.**

**Chapter 26: What is love?  
**

**.**

_"Love is a letter, not a long one, written in a vellum, very elegant, very pretty; it's a letter to congratulate when you read it, a letter of condolence when you finish reading it. If you finish reading it, put it inside a drawer and don't even remember to go look if it had a post-scriptum..."_

**- Machado de Assis**_  
_

**IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

"I beg your pardon?" Hermione gave Riddle a confused expression.

"You heard me, Granger!"

"Yes, I did... and that's exactly why I'm confused." She shook her head before looking at him again. "'What is love?' Why are you asking me this?"

"Because I'm curious...?"

"No, no... Why are you asking _me_ this?"

"Because you're a girl..." he blurted almost automatically.

"As I said before, great deduction, Sherlock." The witch rolled her eyes and sighed.

"And, I don't know, aren't girls more familiar with this kind of stuff?" he said, appearing to be getting even more confused than her.

"Romance, you mean? Well, not every girl is, as you said, familiar, with romantic things." Hermione took a deep breath, looking at her own hands while trying to find a good answer for the Slytherin's question.

"What is love...? Well, I don't know, love is... love! I can't explain... It's when you have an affectionate relationship with someone else... You enjoy being near that person and want to see him or her happy. It's a great feeling that can't really be described with words..." The girl laughed when she saw the way Tom was looking at her. For the first time, she saw Tom Riddle looking totally lost.

"Of course it can be described; I bet I can find it in the library..."

"You won't find anything in the books, or at least not in the kind of books I think you want... I mean, there won't be an article about love in a spell book, you know?" She giggled. "Have you ever read a romance?"

"…Yes. Unfortunately, I had the misfortune of being raised by woman who loved those kinds of stories, and she practically forced me to read them when I was younger." The boy sighed, looking displeased.

"Which ones?"

"Only a few... I remember Romeo and Juliet, the myth of Eros and Psyche..." He shook his head and looked at her again. "But, as I said, they're silly stories with silly characters who act like idiots. I mean, who would ever choose to die over living without someone else?"

"That's love, Riddle," whispered Hermione, looking at the other student and almost feeling bad for him. "You know... It's almost funny to see Hogwarts' greatest student being so confused about something so simple..."

"It's not simple," he murmured, looking away from her and to his own hands, twirling his fingers and making it clear he was starting to get nervous.

"You're right. It's not simple at all; it's actually pretty complicated." The Gryffindor smiled. "But it's so casual, you know. The kind of thing everyone normal should know..."

"Then I'm not normal." He laughed a little.

"Well, that's not new to me." The girl followed him in the laughing. "You must be the oddest person I've ever had the chance to meet... Except, perhaps, a friend I once had, who used to believe in Crumpled-Horned Snorkacks."

"What, in Merlin's name, is a Crumpled-Horned Snorkack?"

"I have absolutely no idea."

They both laughed and Hermione saw Riddle's eyes catching the book she had left on the table. The boy stopped laughing and grabbed it.

"_Magical Objects and Their Uses_?" Tom read the title, raising an eyebrow. "Why do you want it?"

"I don't know, I was curious about... time-turners," she said, trying to sound innocent. The last thing she wanted was to be discovered by Riddle, but... What if he knew something useful about time-turners? Maybe if she gave him the chance to speak, he would supply her with good information. "They're curious little things, aren't they?"

"Complicated little objects, you mean," said Tom, opening the book and looking through its pages, finally stopping on a chapter where a simple looking time-turner was drawn on the top of the page. "Why do you want to know about them? Feel like traveling through time in the near future, Miss Granger?"

She laughed, nervously, before taking the book from his hands and putting it down on her lap. "I just think they're interesting."

"What do you want to know about time-turners?"

"General information. How they work, when someone can use them, what happen when they break..."

"When someone has enough bad luck to break a time-turner," said Tom, laughing a little, "Then the person will be in huge trouble. From what I know, one can only go back to his proper time using the same time-turner that he used to make his first trip or waiting for time to pass by."

"We're doomed..." Hermione couldn't help but whisper to herself.

"What?"

"The person who breaks a time-turner is doomed." She smiled awkwardly, seeing the Head Boy's suspicious look. "But... How does one fix a time-turner?"

"Well, I've never heard of someone fixing one, but I believe there must be a way to do so... Maybe there are wizards out there who are masters in time-turners? Who knows...? But I bet it must be a really difficult task."

Hermione bit her lip, cursing herself for letting her time-turner break during their fight against the Death Eaters... If only she had been a little more careful, then they wouldn't be in this situation.

Then, she felt her face burn when she noticed Riddle was, once again, observing her with an intense look. She hated it when he looked at her that way, his eyes almost burning her skin with the intensity in them. Swallowing down the shyness that seemed to take over her every time she caught Tom's eyes on her, the Gryffindor looked at the Head Boy and opened her mouth to speak again, but stopped when she saw the red mark that showed the spot on Riddle's face where she had hit him earlier. Feeling guilty, Hermione stretched her arm, touching his cheek lightly and making the Slytherin almost jump, startled with the contact.

"I'm sorry about that," she whispered, noticing how Tom's body was leaning back, as if trying to get away from her. "Come on, I won't hurt you, there's no need to try to escape from me... I... I lost control, alright? I'm sorry."

"Yes, it was obvious that you lost it," said Riddle in a low tone. "But thank God it seems that losing your patience is a very rare event."

"Yes... Only a few people have had the pleasure to see me like that." Granger laughed, remembering the time when she made a bunch of birds attack Ron when he and Lavender Brown had the misfortune of finding her crying in an empty classroom. As the memory appeared in her mind, the girl couldn't help but feel uncomfortable... A lot of the time, she forgot that she used to have a life in another decade, but when those little memories struck her, Hermione remembered the Hogwarts she used to know, her former classmates, the war, her parents...

"Granger?" Riddle called to her, narrowing his eyes when he saw her eyes filling up with tears.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, wiping the tears off. "I was just... I was just remembering about my life before, you know, the war."

"I see." Tom looked at his hands once more, before looking at the Head Girl again. "What was it like? Before everything happened..."

"It was... normal. I mean, we had a family and friends, and lived our lives without troubling anyone." She gave him a sad smile. "We all lived around Ron's family, you see? The Purkiss... they were good people, always trying to help everyone and being kind to every soul that crossed their path. Mr. Purkiss was, I could say, in love with the Muggle world... Mrs. Purkiss was the kindest woman I've ever met," Hermione explained, concentrating on not calling Ron's family 'the Weasleys'. "Harry's parents were really nice too, and really brave... He also had a godfather who he considered to be a second father, as well as another friend of Mr. Pevensie who was Harry's 'third' father." She laughed. "And then there were my parents... Muggle dentists... Good people." She took a deep breath and blinked, trying to get rid of the tears that were now filling up her eyes. "What about you?"

"Me?"

"Yeah... Family? Friends? I mean, before Hogwarts."

"I didn't have any of them." His answer was short and direct.

"Come on, you couldn't have lived eleven years without a friend or something like that..."

"There was Mrs. Cole and Martha, but I don't think I can classify them as friends or family. They simply took care of me because I lived in the orphanage," Tom explained. "The other kids from that place... Well, they didn't think I was someone with who they wanted to be friends with."

"And your family?" Hermione knew she was risking entering dangerous territory, but went on anyway. "Did you ever get to know them?"

Riddle was silent for a few seconds, only looking down at his hands, at his fingers that were still twisting one another, showing off his anxiety.

"My mother died giving birth to me," he said. "My father... My father never showed up during my entire life. I don't know if he knew I existed or not."

"I'm sorry."

"I know he lived in a village in Yorkshire with his parents... and..."

"And?"

"That he was good at understanding people," the boy spoke, almost without noticing the words leaving his mouth. "What? No... No, forget what I said. I don't know if he was good at that or not." He shook his head and breathed deeply. "I never met him; I can't know what he was good at."

Hermione decided to ignore Riddle's debate with himself, believing that the conflict of information in his mind was happening due to fatigue, and kept looking at him quietly.

"He must have been a good man," she said, not even noticing she was speaking as if she knew Tom Riddle Sr. was already dead. "And your mother must have been a good woman. I know you haven't met any of them, but it does no good to judge them without knowing what made them make their decisions..."

Riddle narrowed his eyes while looking at her for an instant, before sighing and asking, "What do you want to do after leaving Hogwarts?"

"What...?" _Where did this question come from?_ she wondered. "I don't know; I haven't stopped to think about it yet. What about you?"

"I'm going to go back to the orphanage until I find a job and somewhere else to stay."

"Are you going to apply for the Ministry?" she asked, even though she already knew the answer.

"No, I don't think I would fit into the Ministry." Tom laughed. "I wanted to teach... Defense Against Dark Arts, here at Hogwarts."

"_Professor_ Riddle." Hermione laughed, imagining Riddle in a set of Snape's robes, walking up and down Hogwarts, terrorizing the students. "I kind of feel sorry for the poor students..."

"Yes... I actually have other plans for the future, but becoming a teacher is the closest thing to reality I have until now."

"Riddle, I'm sorry by the about change of subject but... What was the reason you asked me about love?"

The Head Boy looked at her for a moment, trying to find a good answer for her question. Why did he get interested into the subject? He had always thought that love was something that weakened people, and made them act like idiots... Then why the sudden interest in the feeling anyway?

"I don't know, Hermione," he answering, noticing the slight look of disappointment on the girl's face.

"Oh, I see..." the girl said quietly, noticing that it was the first time Tom had called her by her first name. "I just happened to remember another definition for love."

"And what is it?"

"Love, Tom, is a feeling that is much easier to be felt than to be explained."

Saying that, the girl gathered all her courage, and leaned in, kissing the Slytherin's lips carefully, feeling his body stiffen before he started trying to back away from her. Tom feared physical contact, she noticed... Apparently he felt uncomfortable with it, unused to the touch of another person. Trying to make the boy stop backing away, she pressed her lips against his with a little more pressure. After a while, she finally felt his body losing its tension and his hands reaching her face, caressing her cheeks gently before holding her head in place as he kissed her back.

Riddle stopped kissing her for a moment, looking at the girl's face as if trying to understand what was going on inside her head. Hermione couldn't help but notice the difference in that Tom Riddle from the one she was used to see... This boy didn't have the strong and cold eyes, but confused and curious blue eyes that seemed to understand what they saw; this Tom had his cheeks painted with a light tone of pink which gave him a much more innocent look...

Before she could ask him if there was anything wrong, Riddle's lips touched hers again, and Hermione couldn't help but feel satisfied as she felt a tiny smile against her mouth.

******IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII**

******A/N: **Well... I'm not dead. I always say that, but okay... As always, school is taking all my time. When I'm not at the anatomy lab, I'm at class... and when I'm not in any of these places, I'm at home, organizing my notebooks and studying D: Anyway, here is chapter 26 :D I remember that when I first wrote this chapter, I had to go around my friends and ask them how they would describe "love", because I simply couldn't describe it :/ So, yeah, thanks all my friends who helped me with this simple-and-yet-complicated description.

**1-**_** "Except, perhaps, a friend I once had, who used to believe in Crumpled-Horned Snorkacks.":**_ I always wonder how Tom would react if he met Luna... it would be interesting :D

**2- Tom talking about his father:** the poor guy is already mixing dreams with reality. What he said about Tom Sr is, obviously, what he learnt about him in his dream...

**3- Tom and his fear for physical contact:** I don't know if fear is the right word... But.. I can see Tom being that kind of person who simply can't feel comfortable while being touched by someone else. You feel like getting away from that touch not because it's hurting you or because it's insinuating anything... it's just because you feel uncomfortable with it :/

**4- _"Love is a letter...":_** again, more Machado de Assis. I loved this description of love... makes so much sense '-'

Now... A few days ago I noticed that I had disabled anonymous reviews in my stories. Ha, yeah, I just noticed it now... But I fixed it :3 So, if by any chance you are reading RR and you couldn't leave a review because of that, now you can :D

As always, thanks everyone who reviewed last chapter and thanks Shadow6116 for beta reading the story.

Reviews are always great, you know that :3

******Ari.  
**


	27. I would love to

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 27: I would love to**

.

* * *

"You disappeared after you left Hogsmeade."

"I... I wasn't feeling very well and decided to head back to the castle to lie down a bit," answered Hermione, looking away from Harry. "I also spent some time reading the books Merrythought assigned us to read for the next class."

"Bloody hell, I forgot about those," said Ron, taking a bite of his toast. "Anyway, will you watch the game today?"

"Maybe, Harry, I still have to finish an Arithmancy essay," said the girl, smiling to her friends. "You could use the time you'll spend on the pitch watching the game on reading Merrythought's books..."

"Oh, Hermione, please!" The red haired wizard grimaced, before turning his attention to Harry and Charlus, who had just arrived at the Gryffindor table. The girl smiled, watching as the boys talked about the advantages of each Quidditch team and which house (Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff) was most likely to win the match that would begin in a few minutes, before turning her head away from their conversation and looking at the table across the Great Hall.

Tom Riddle was watching her, but as soon as her eyes laid on him, the boy looked down, smiling softly. Hermione couldn't help but let her smile widen on her face, feeling stupid for acting in such a silly way. Well... If she was feeling stupid, imagine what was going through Riddle's head! He must have been hating himself for letting emotions take over him.

"Mione, we're going to the pitch," said Harry, getting up, followed by Ron and Charlus.

"Alright, have a good time!" said Hermione, watching her friends walk away. To see them being so happy over a Quidditch game made her remember how it was like when they were back in 'their' time... How the students got excited about the games, as if there was no Dark Lord out there threatening their lives. The witch laughed quietly as the image of Luna Lovegood wearing a lion hat and cheering for Gryffindor appeared in her mind.

* * *

The library was almost empty due to the game at the Quidditch pitch. Hermione seemed to be the only living person inside the place, seeing as her only company was the Grey Lady, who was floating between the shelves, sighing from time to time and looking extremely bored.

"Hello."

"Oh, hello," the girl whispered, recognizing the voice at the same time. "Not watching the game?"

"I wasn't feeling like watching a few idiots kill each other in order to get their hands on a ball. How about you? Decided not to be by your friends' side?"

"Like you, Riddle, I'm not the greatest fan of Quidditch." She finally looked up at the boy next to her. "Instead of enjoying it, I get preoccupied with the fact my friends can fall off of their broomsticks at any time."

"Did any of them fall already? Like Pevensie and Purkiss?" The Slytherin asked, laughing, seemingly pleased with the mental image of the two Gryffindors falling from a few meters above the ground.

"You're a mean one, Mr. Riddle, picturing my friends falling from their broomsticks." Hermione shook her head. "But, yes, Harry did fall once."

"And yet he's still here amongst us."

"Thank Merlin, yes."

The Slytherin laughed again, watching the girl look back into the book in her hands. It was the same book she had bought at Hogsmeade.

"Still fascinated about time turners?"

"Oh, yes."

"You know, in my third year, when we could choose our elective subjects," Tom started to speak with a silly smile on his face, "Professor Slughorn thought about giving me a time-turner, so I could be at all my classes..."

"What?"

"I got a little bit excited with the idea of having new subjects. I mean... It would be more knowledge about the Wizarding world! I couldn't stop myself and ended up signing up for all the subjects except for Muggle Studies," said Riddle. "I was an odd thirteen year old. The only one in the castle who was more interested in the new subjects than in the visits to Hogsmeade... Well, Slughorn said he would get authorization from the Ministry and lend me a time-turner, but Dumbledore put so much effort into making me give up a few classes that I ended up doing as he wanted me to do. Long story short: I almost had a time-turner in my hands, but dear Professor Dumbledore made sure that I wouldn't touch one even if it was for academic purposes."

Hermione was looking at him with an astounded expression. What happened to Tom was what happened to her in her third year... Well, except for the part where Dumbledore didn't let the Slytherin use a time-turner.

"Are you alright, Granger?"

"I'm great," she said, shaking her head.

"Ah, I remembered something: Slughorn asked me to tell you that the next Slug Club meeting will be next Friday."

"Thank you for telling me." Hermione smiled. "But I'm not really sure I'll show up..."

"You better not."

"I beg your pardon?"

"Avery, Lestrange and Malfoy are really not happy with you," answered the Slytherin. "I'm sure they would do everything they could to make that silly meeting even worse for you."

"Oh, well, you already did that last time."

Tom shrugged and smiled, remembering how the girl was terribly uncomfortable during the last meeting when she was in the middle of all those pure-blooded Slytherins.

"Granger, I know how much you love the library, believe me, I love it too, but... Could we go somewhere else? Take a walk around the castle or something like that... This place is quieter than a funeral."

"Alright," The girl laughed, closing her book and getting up. "By the way, I loved the comparison."

* * *

"AND RAVENCLAW GOT ANOTHER ONE! 100 POINTS TO RAVENCLAW NOW! OH, WAIT, THAT'S IT! HUFFLEPUFF MARKED ANOTHER GOAL...!"

The yellow and black crowd cheered even louder. Ron, Minerva and Charlus cheered along with the rest of the Hufflepuff house. Harry was the only one who was quiet. The boy spent most of his time silently, thinking... He had seen what Hermione was reading during breakfast and it wasn't Merrythought's book. The girl was spending her time researching a way for them to get back to their time, reading about time-turners, and seeing that made Harry want to do something useful too, not letting his friend doing all the hard work... It didn't matter if it was trying to find information about the Horcruxes or a way to get back home.

"Ron?" the black haired boy called. "Ron!"

"What's wrong, mate?" Ron asked, finally looking away from the game.

"Come here." Harry grabbed the other's cape and pulled him closer so he could hear what he was saying without having to scream. "How about we sneak out of the game and go back to the castle to find the Grey Lady? With everyone here, it'll be easier to talk to her... I bet she'll be nicer to us."

"But, Harry... The game is great and... Oh, well, that is more important than the game," said the red haired wizard, looking wistfully at the players for a second before calling Minerva and Charlus. "Hey, Harry and I are heading back to the castle! See you later!"

"Why?"

They didn't answer McGonagall's question and left before she could call them again, disappearing in the black cloaks of the students.

* * *

"Granger? Hermione, are you listening to me?"

"I'm sorry, my mind wandered for a little... What were you saying?"

"It's alright." Riddle narrowed his eyes. "I was asking you if you, by any chance, have already been in a... You know... In a relationship?"

The girl didn't know if she should be concerned about the fact her face was feeling terribly hot or if she should laugh at how disconcerted Riddle seemed.

"Like... Having a boyfriend?" The boy nodded. "Uh, I... I don't think so. No, no, I haven't." She didn't know if what she had with Viktor Krum could be called being his girlfriend. They had a small crush on each other and enjoyed spending time together, but never proclaimed to be each other's boyfriend and girlfriend.

Tom took a deep breath, not believing what he was about to do. He was convicted that something weakened him that year, because it wasn't possible for him to be acting as his normal self.

"Look, I know it'll sound stupid and cliché," said Riddle, feeling his face flush, but he turned around to look at the girl in the eyes. "But I've been thinking... And I mean thinking a lot... And I wanted to know if you... If there was any chance of you... Well, of you wanting to become my girlfriend?"

Hermione felt her legs falter for a few seconds. It wasn't possible that she had heard him correctly. This wasn't happening at all, it was just a crazy dream she would wake up soon.

"Tom, I..."

She stared at him for a moment, not believing what she was seeing. The last thing she would ever imagine seeing in Tom Riddle's ever so inexpressive face was that kind of emotion... Was it fear? Fear of being rejected? But she couldn't possibly say "yes!" That could change history, be catastrophic... But something inside her, a small part of herself that was ruled by her heart and not her head, seemed to be speaking louder than rationality.

"I would love to, Tom."

And as soon as she accepted his offer, Hermione Granger knew she had given the right answer, because not even a catastrophe of time itself would ever erase the sight of the beautiful smile that appeared in Tom Riddle's face when he heard what she said.

* * *

**A/N:** I'm not even going to ask for you to forgive the long time I took to update, so... On with the notes: I don't know what to say about this chapter. Utter clichê, I don't know, but I guess it's necessary... I'm not good at writing romantic scenes, I feel almost like Tom is feeling while he asked Hermione to be his girlfriend, I guess. Anyway, a funny thing about this chapter: when I first posted it in portuguese, most of the readers were surprised to see Tom asking Hermione to be his girlfriend... Not because he's Tom Riddle, but because they had never read a fanfiction in which the boy or the girl ask their partner, really asks, if they wanted to be their girlfriend/boyfriend. Accourding to them, the couple simply... became boyfriend/girlfriend out of nowhere. Shame on me, I like the good old "hey, woud you like to be my girlfriend/boyfriend?".

Guys, guys, I guess I already asked this to you, but okay... Does any of you have a tumblr? I'm getting back to mine now and I love to go after people to follow e_e Anyway, I have... 4 tumblrs (yeah, 4), so, if anyone is interested, they're: vasovagalsyncope, sevenparts (which is where I reblog most of my medical stuff), i-am-tomriddlesr (a RP blog in which I play Tom Riddle Sr) and asktommriddle (those askblogs... it's in portuguese, but I answer questions in English too). Yeah, yeah, a bit of a tumblr addict here.

Anyway, I hope you liked the chapter, even if it is... a little bit... too... sugary. Thanks for those who left reviews until now and thanks to Shadow6116 for editing the chapter. As always, reviews are always great :D

**Ari.**


	28. Blessed are

**Riddle's Riddles**

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**Chapter 28: Blessed are...  
**

_._

_"Blessed are the friends who believe in your truth or that show you the reality._  
_Because friend is direction,_  
_Friend is the basis when the ground is gone!"_

- Machado de Assis

* * *

That was it. He had asked her. The odd feeling in his stomach was still there, even though he had said the words he had thought about so much, and it seemed to grow in the time Hermione took to answer him. Tom couldn't help but feel like an idiot as he waited for her response... How could he fall down to the level of getting nervous because of the answer to a question? It was ridiculous... And, yet, there he was, trying to keep himself from twisting his fingers around, or anything that would give away his nervousness.

The girl gawked at him, looking like she didn't know what to say. However, Tom could already see the witch saying something along the lines of "I'm sorry, Tom, but no." The "I'm sorry" would surely come with the rejection; after all, this was Hermione Granger, the girl who seemed to be unable to break the heart of someone she cared about – at least not willingly – and, in Tom's opinion, she cared about him, even if it was only a tiny little bit.

"Tom, I..." she spoke in a low voice, looking into his eyes and he wondered if there was any chance of her seeing what was going through his head just by doing that. He was, sometimes, able to do so, but now all he wanted was for her not to have the same gift as him. "I would love to, Tom."

It took a moment for the information to sink in, and, when it did, the only response his body could give was a smile, a smile which he was sure looked silly, but he couldn't really contain it. He saw Hermione smiling too... So, she was happy. It was good, very good.

But, then, if she had given the answer he wanted to his question, why didn't the odd sensation in his stomach leave yet? The anxiety didn't seem to vanish as he had expected; instead, it seemed to grow. He was in a relationship – because he had asked for it and Hermione had accepted his request – and now what?

There were so many questions. Should he walk around Hogwarts hand in hand with the Gryffindor? Should he act like a silly teenager when he was with her? Should he kiss her more often? Should they get even deeper on the physical interaction? The mere thought of it all made him almost regret asking Hermione Granger to be his girlfriend... He didn't want to be expected to shower her with poetry, to have a lot of physical contact with her, to act as if she was his whole world. Yes, she meant a great deal to him, Tom knew that, but he wasn't sure yet if she was everything that was worth living for... The boy enjoyed her presence, enjoyed talking to her – especially because she actually had good subjects they could talk about – and, above everything, he enjoyed the way she seemed to care about him. But still... The idea of what could come with a relationship was starting to scare him.

"I... Thank you." The words slipped from his mouth automatically.

"There's no need to thank me." The girl laughed. "So..."

"Soon the match will be over," said Tom, not knowing how to head the conversation.

"Yes... Who do you think will win?"

Oh, well, that was a good start for a relationship, wasn't it? Talking about _Quidditch_.

"Hufflepuff, I hope."

"Hufflepuff?" she asked, laughing quietly. "I never thought you were a Hufflepuff fan."

"I'm not... I already said I'm not a Quidditch fan. But between Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff winning the match, I have to pick the badgers," he said. "If the Ravenclaws win, I'll have to endure a whole week of hearing them brag about how witty they were during the match and how their intelligence led them to victory."

"I also never thought of you as someone who dislikes Ravenclaw."

"I don't dislike the house... But I don't want to hear them bragging about it for as long as I know they would. The Hufflepuffs don't do that."

"I think that if you weren't in Slytherin, you'd be a Ravenclaw," said Hermione, smiling as she saw Tom's eyebrows furrow and his eyes narrow. "You know, the Hat almost put me in Ravenclaw."

"Oh, did it?"

"Yes, but, in the end, it said I'd be better off in Gryffindor."

Riddle kept himself from saying that it was a pity the Sorting Hat didn't put her into Ravenclaw, because, even if the students in the house sometimes got on his nerves, there was no house that he disliked more than Gryffindor.

"You would be a good Ravenclaw," the wizard said, letting a small smile appear on his face. "You're smart, witty, eager to learn... Everything Rowena valued in her students."

"Yes, but I'm also 'close minded', according to some people." She laughed. "Maybe that's why the Hat put me in Gryffindor instead."

"No, I bet it put you in there so there would be someone with some sense to take care of your friends."

"Oh, you're a mean one, Mr. Riddle." The girl shook her head, still laughing. "Harry and Ron could live through a year at Hogwarts without me by their side... They probably would have lower grades in some subjects, but still..."

"Then I'm the mean one," said Tom.

"I'm not saying they're incapable of anything. Harry, for example, is way better than I am in Defense. Their problem is that, sometimes, they forget how important it is for them to take classes seriously."

"Isn't that everyone's problem?"

"Not yours, I guess."

"No, but because I know how lucky I am for being here," said Tom, suddenly becoming serious.

It was true... ever since he first entered Hogwarts, the boy always thought of it as a privilege, something he had to take good care of. Most of his classmates went back to their houses, to their magical families and kept in touch with the wizarding world once classes were over, but he had to practically shut himself away from it. He was lucky to be in Hogwarts and he would make the best out of that experience.

"So are we, remember?" Hermione asked, giving him a sad smile that reminded him of the fact that she and her friends were actually war refugees in here. "But anyway," She took his arm and pulled him closer. "Let's go back inside."

"Hermione?" the Slytherin called.

"Yes?"

"Will you tell your friends about... this?" He looked down at her hand on his arm.

The Gryffindor was silent for a moment. Of course she would tell them, but, until now, she hadn't really thought about how Harry and Ron would react to the fact that she was now dating Tom Riddle.

"Yes..." she said, sounding quite aloof. "I mean, _of_ _course_!"

Tom narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. From what he knew about Pevensie and Purkiss, they wouldn't like seeing their friend dating him; he was someone they had disliked since they had first met and a Slytherin as well... So he didn't know how the witch would manage to tell them.

"What about you?" she asked. "I don't think your friends would like to hear you're dating a Muggle-born Gryffindor."

"I don't need to give them explanations for my actions," he said, containing a smile when a couple of Slytherins girls, probably second years, walked by and stared at them. "Is there something wrong with us?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Because those girls seem to be unable to look away from us," he said, turning his head and catching a glimpse of one of the girls watching them.

"Come on now, Tom, every Slytherin girl must daydream about you – and not only the Slytherins, I must say – and, well, they just saw their dream boy walking hand in hand with another girl."

"I'm not walking hand in hand with you," whispered Tom, feeling Hermione's fingers squeeze his arm. "More like... hand in arm or something like that."

"Something tells me you're more of a 'hand in arm' person." She smiled.

"I guess..."

* * *

"You're the second person in the last few days who asked me about it." The ghost bowed her head, looking down at the boys, her long hair floating around her and hiding her face.

"Well, it is interesting..." said Ron, shrugging as he saw the woman turning around and staring at him.

"Indeed." She narrowed her eyes before looking at the other boy. "Do you know you remind me of a colleague of yours?"

"Oh." Harry furrowed his brows. "Really?"

"Mr. Riddle, I believe you know him..."

"Unfortunately," whispered the red haired boy.

"Well," The ghost looked at Ron seriously, sighing. "I already told you everything I know about my mother's diadem..."

"Thank you, Ms. Ravenclaw," said Harry. The ghost nodded quickly before floating away from them. As soon as she was a few meters away from them, he looked at his friend and smiled. "Done."

"At least this time she wasn't rude." Ron laughed. "Want to go back to the castle? I mean, I bet the match is already over, so there's no use going back to the pitch."

The two boys headed back to the castle, noticing that the game hadn't ended yet as the corridors seemed to be empty. Harry convinced Ron to go looking for Hermione instead of going back to the Quidditch pitch in order to try to watch the end of the match.

"She must be at the library," said the red haired wizard as they walked past the entrance to the Great Hall. "She's always there..."

"I don't think we need to go all the way up to the library." Harry pointed at something at the end of the corridor. "She's there."

"Who's with her? Is it...?" asked Ron, narrowing his eyes to get a better sight. "What's she doing with Riddle?"

"Probably arguing." The shorter wizard laughed.

"But people usually don't argue while walking hand in hand."

This time it was Harry who had to narrow his eyes in order to finally see how Hermione's hand seemed to be grasping the Slytherin's arm. That didn't seem right.

"Harry?" Ron saw his friend walk quickly in the couple's direction. "Mate, oh Merlin! Wait!"

"Hermione?" the Gryffindor called and, as soon as she heard his voice, Hermione turned around, finally letting go of Riddle's arm, looking at him with wide eyes. "What's going on here?"

"Harry..."

"For Merlin's sake, mate, I told you to wait." Ron had just arrived next to his friend, panting from the running.

"You should sit down, Purkiss, otherwise you'll pass out," said Tom, eyeing the boy. "How was the match?"

"We didn't get to watch the end of it..." panted the red haired boy.

"What's going on, Hermione?" Harry asked seriously. "Is he bothering you?"

"What? No, no, he isn't," said the girl, shaking her head and looking at Tom, who nodded curtly before turning around and walking away. "Harry, I need to talk to you and Ron."

She watched as the Slytherin disappeared at the corner before turning to her friends. She should have thought about them before accepting Tom's proposal.

"So?"

"Harry, I..." The girl started speaking, running a hand through her bushy hair as she tried to find a way to explain everything to him. "Let's say that Tom asked something of me... Actually, he made a proposal."

"Oh, come on now, what are you trying to say, that Riddle asked you to marry him?" Ron laughed nervously.

"No, not to marry him..."

"Mione, are you saying that he...?" Harry started talking, his eyes widening when he made the connection. "That isn't right, Mione! He's... He's Voldemort!"

"No, he isn't," she said quietly. "He's Tom Riddle."

"And who is Tom Riddle? _Lord Voldemort!_"

"Harry, _please_, don't talk so loudly!"

"Hermione, please pay attention to what I'm saying: Tom Riddle is dangerous. He's a murderer, he hates Muggles, he's cruel... God knows if he isn't a psychopath or something like that!"

"Harry!"

"He is our enemy. He killed my parents. Cedric, Mad-Eye, Sirius... All those people died because of him! For God's sake, he almost killed Ginny! He almost killed _you! _Remember that? Second year, the basilisk almost killed you, and who was commanding the creature? Riddle!"

"Harry, stop, he's not the same person..."

"No, Hermione!" Harry shouted, making both Hermione and Ron jump. "That man killed my parents! Sirius is dead because of him! Ron's family is on the run because of him! Your parents are lost in the middle of Australia because of him!"

"Harry, mate, stop it, you're way too jumpy," said Ron, looking at his friend with an apprehensive look on his face. "I'm sure we can sort this out without making a scene..."

"Ron is right, Harry," the witch said, feeling her eyes water because of her anxiety.

"So you're telling me that it's alright to snog the man who is trying to kill us?"

"_Harry Potter!_" This time it was Hermione who shouted, finally making her friend become silent. "Tom Riddle is a _teenager_. He's an eighteen year old teenager just like you or me! He's not Lord Voldemort, he's not the man who killed your parents, and he's not the responsible for the deaths of Sirius and Cedric... Not yet..."

Harry stared at her for a few minutes, his green eyes locked into her brown ones with an intensity she had never seen before. The girl felt her stomach turn as she noticed how big the fight she was building up against her friends was. Merlin, if only she could make Harry, Ron and Tom get along... They didn't have to be best friends, but her friends could at least stop calling Riddle "Voldemort". It didn't feel right.

Ever since they had arrived in the past, Harry had insisted on thinking that Tom was the exact same person as Voldemort, when it was obvious that wasn't the case... Even if Riddle had done some things that reminded her of the Dark Lord – the fascination with the dark arts, the cold behavior, the persuasive nature... -, she knew he wasn't the same man from the future... Lord Voldemort would never trust anyone as much as he seemed to trust her; he would never talk so openly about his plans like he did with her; he would never be so human like Tom was.

"Do what you want." The words were almost spat in her face as the boy turned on his foot. "But be aware that you're entering enemy territory, Hermione... Also, remember that we'll have to go back. We'll have to go back to Lord Voldemort."

And, with that, he left. Ron stayed behind, staring after his friend for a while before looking at Hermione. He seemed to want to say something, but remained silent instead. The girl sighed and nodded, as if telling him she would leave. Ron understood her signal and watched as she took a deep breath and left, looking as if she was about to cry.

"By Merlin's baggy underwear," the boy cursed, letting his hands mess up his red hair. "What did we get ourselves into?"

"Ron? Ron!" Ron turned his head and saw Minerva McGonagall running up to him, smiling. "Oh, are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm great," he said, smiling. Minerva didn't need to know about the fight between his friends. "So, how was the match?"

"It was great! You had to see it, Ron! Hufflepuff won, but Ravenclaw was playing really well," the Gryffindor explained, before grabbing his hands. "They're going to have a party, you know, to celebrate their victory... How about it?"

"Where? The Hufflepuff common room?"

"What? No, obviously not... They never let anyone from another house enter their common room." She laughed. "It's in a room in the seventh floor, opposite to that crazy tapestry of the dancing trolls. We call it the Come and Go Room."

"Oh..."

"Where's Harry and Hermione? They would love it there... Hufflepuffs always have good parties."

"Er, Hermione must be studying and Harry went back to the tower, he said he wasn't feeling well..."

"Ah, okay then... But, you will come, right?" Minerva smiled again. "Charlus and Septimus will be there."

Ron took a deep breath before smiling to his friend.

"Alright, alright, but I won't stay for too long."

* * *

**A/N:** So, after feeling horrible for taking too long to update and giving you a crappy chapter like the last one, I decided to update faster this time... And with a chapter I believe that is better than the last one. As said Ron: by Merlin's baggy underwear, in what did the trio get themselves into? Now Harry and Ron knows about Tom and Mione relationship and... I don't know if I got their reactions right. After reading Order of the Phoenix and seeing how nervous and moody Potter was in that book, I guess it's okay for me to imagine that his reaction would be something like that "Hermione, what the hell are you think you are doing? are you mad? Are you stupid? No, no, no, don't say anything! I won't hear anything, even if what you're saying makes any sense!"... But I guess he has all the right to be like that, I mean, Voldemort killed his parents, tried to kill him year after year etc etc... And Hermione is his friend, he doesn't want her to be hurt. So, yeah, moody!Harry and rather calm-and-confused!Ron (have I already told you guys that I find it extremely hard to write these two characters?). Anyway, funny thing about when I first posted this chapter in portuguese: most readers went all mad on Harry, like... "How dare you say those things about Tom? How dare you be mad at Hermione? How dare you, Harry Potter?" and I was alll like "Guys, calm down, he was trying to help her, in his point of view he is right, and he has good reasons to think like that!". Poor Harry, received a lot of hate that time...

**1-"You're a mean one, Mr. Riddle":** reference to that song "You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch"... It's the title of a fanfiction about Tom I wrote on 2010 for his birthday.

**2- "They never let anyone from another house enter their common room.":** I usually don't take Pottermore information in account, but I really liked all that it said about the Hufflepuff house. (Nope, I don't have a Pottermore account. I gave mine to my sister, who happened to be sorted into Slytherin, and found the information about Hufflepuff on tumblr).

**3- _"Blessed are the friends who believe in your truth or that show you the reality /__ Because friend is direction / __Friend is the basis when the ground is gone!":_** Machado de Assis, again...By the end of the fic I'll make at least some people, at the most, go to his page on wikipedia to look at a photo of him XD ... Anyway, this is part of a poem of his that I love. I hope the translation is not to horrible:

_"Blessed are those who have friends, those who have them without asking,  
Because friend you don't ask, don't buy and don't sell,  
Friend we understand._

_.  
_

_Blessed are those who suffer for their friends, those who speak with their eyes,  
Because a friend doesn't satay in silence, doesn't question and doesn't surrender,  
Friends we understand!_

_.  
_

_Blessed are those who keep their friends, those who give them a shoulder to cry on,  
Because a friend suffers and cries,  
Friends don't have time to comfort!_

_.  
Blessed are the friends who believe in your truth or that show you the reality.  
Because friend is direction,  
Friend is the basis when the ground is gone!_

_.  
Blessed are all the deep friends, the true ones,  
Because friends are the heirs of the real wit,  
To have friends is to have the best complicity!_

_.  
_

_There are people who cry for knowing that roses have torns,  
There are others who smile for knowing that torns have roses!"_

Well, that's it... I hope you enjoyed this chapter and, as always, reviews are always welcome (: Thanks for those who reviewed last chapter and thanks, Shadow6116, for beta reading it.

**Ari._  
_**


	29. AUTHOR'S NOTE

**Author's Note**

* * *

Some of you may have noticed the huge amount of time I'm taking to update RR and maybe... maybe one of you took a look at my dA, my tumblr or my livejournal and saw my rant about RR there. In short: two months ago I came to realise that I was hating RR. I didn't like the way I wrote it, the way I was making the characters, the way the story was developing and all that stuff... I think it's because I started writing it about three years ago, when I was 16... And I'm turning 19 this year. Not only my writing style has changed a lot since then, but also my view on the characters and the plot I had in mind for a TomMione fic.

Whatever, what I want to say is that... I'll kinda of give up on RR, because I'm working on a new THr. I could keep going with both of them if it were for two things: 1) my lack of time to write. Med school is taking most of my time nowadays... And now I'm taking classes apart from it in order to "distract" myself a bit {piano and russian}, so, even less time, and 2) because that new fic has the same "shape" as RR... There'll be scenes that you guys saw in RR and the ending will be the same. That's why I can't continue with RR... I would end up giving out the other story :/ I hope you guys don't hate me for doing that, really, but, as I said to **_Once Upon a Time I Died,_** try to understand that it's really hard for me to keep writing something with the style I used when I was 16, since my writing has changed so much since then. I'll try really hard to make this new fic a really good one, with good character development and a good plot for those who are going to read it... Regarding this new fic: I started writing it in the beginning of March and I have 5 chapters ready until now and I want to post it as soon as possible, BUT... I'm struggling with finding a title for it. Well, I thinkg that's it...I hope you don't hate me and, yeah. I'm sorry.

Also, I guess it's good for me to thanks everyone who read RR until now... So, thank you for acually taking interest in this fic, guys, really, this means a lot to me.

{Btw, I may finish translating RR once I finish this other fic, it depends on how I feel about it and on the time I'll have until then...}

**Ari.**


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